


30 Kisses

by Dragonsquill (dragonsquill), Linane



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Ficlets, Gifts, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2018-09-10 18:05:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 44,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8926912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonsquill/pseuds/Dragonsquill, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Linane/pseuds/Linane
Summary: This is a series of FiKi ficlets covering a number of universes and ratings, written by us as gifts for various members of the wonderful FiKi community.  There are fantasy, science fiction, superpower, werewolf, space dwarves, etc - all sorts from established and new universes.  Please see the appendix (final chapter) for a by-ficlet content listing.





	1. Kiss One

M rating; gift for vicky

\----  
It isn’t quite snow trapping them inside in the days before Midwinter. It's too-warm-too-cold, and the sky is blessing them with as much sleet and rain as anything. Perfect, really, as excuse to stay and safe and warm inside their apartment, listening to the rain and sleet slash at the one window to the outside from the warm coziness of stone.

They've been busy for weeks, every moment full of press junkets and tour plans, video recordings and meetings with stylists who are determined to do terrible things to Kíli’s hai. But the entire band decided to put their foot down when it came to Midwinter - one week off, no exceptions, and even Fili went along when Kili gave a carefully prepared speech on the importance of relaxation in the creative process.

It's just as well in the end. No one would want to leave the safety of mountain or home to brave the streets of Dale in this weather. 

They've been decorating, and the entire apartment is filled with the scent of pine and woodsmoke, warm and heavy and utterly perfect for cuddling together on the sofa. Fili at the end, feet up on the ottoman that's practically a sofa in and of itself, Kili sprawled over his chest, head on one broad shoulder.

They're all talked out and the television was muted hours ago; the only sounds in the room are the crackles and pops from the fireplace and the soft slide of fabric and skin.

Kili turns his head, lips parted, and lifts his hips lazily into the strong fingers massaging his cock through the soft fabric of his briefs. He wants a kiss, certainly shouldn’t have to ask for it, but instead he gets a mouthful of braid for his trouble.

Fíli chuckles, and Kíli gets his little bit of revenge by grabbing the bead in his teeth and tugging, just a little, so the mustache pulls at the sensitive skin beside Fíli’s mouth.

Maybe Fíli’s nails dig in, just the tiniest bit, through the cloth, and maybe there’s a flash of something that isn’t quite pain, but Kíli only moans and shivers at Fíli’s attempt at retaliation.

“Brat,” Fíli murmurs, more teasing than anything else, and there’s the brush of Fili's thumb against skin just above the band of the briefs - a silent request they both already know the answer to, but-

Yeah," Kili moans, squirms a little-he can feel the hardening flesh under his ass and the squirm becomes more of a grind.

"Behave," Fili murmurs, even as his own fingers, clearly not behaving at all, slide beneath the fabric and over sensitive skin. 

Fili's hands are strong and every movement is delicate, but callouses catch and pull, just enough, in dark curls. Kili moans, bites his lip.

Kili always loves listening to Fili play, but that's not the only bonus he gets from being madly in love with a violinist.

Fili knows him perfectly - the rhythm that gets him off fastest, the wild strokes and steady pulls he uses to get Kili off backstage - but right now, he's completely ignoring every scrap of knowledge he has. The strokes are gentle, twisting, a little too hard here, a lttle too soft there, and Kili growls a low argument even as he does nothing to change it.

Fíli is in one of his best moods, in no hurry but extremely attentive.

Kíli is not one to argue.

Fili’s cock is delightfully hard beneath his ass, and Kíli grins to himself as he moves his hips – slow, liquid rolls into those lovely hands and back again. He turns his head again, ordering, “Kiss me,” this time.

“Yes, sir,” Fíli purrs, and Kíli shivers as he’s given a sweet kiss, a flicker of tongue against his lower lip.

There's a lingering taste of hot chocolate and caramel on his brother's lips and Kili grins to himself as he licks and nibbles at that beautiful mouth. Later, Kili has plans for that mouth and those hands, Fíli’s voice and Fíli’s body. But for now-

Talented fingers and slow, sweet kisses the flavor of caramel will do just fine.

They have nowhere to be, except here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is from my Heirs of Durin universe. :) ~Quill


	2. Kiss Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for SaucyWench :)

Kili is dreaming of beans. 

Huge, giant stalks, which have apparently taken particular liking to his quiet murmurs of encouragement and grew and grew and grew all the way to the very sky itself, disappearing between the clouds. 

“Whoops,” He frowns, looking around worriedly.

The giant bean stalk is a problem.

For starters, it must be visible for miles and is likely to attract unwanted attention to Bilbo’s garden. Secondly, collecting the beans is going to be very difficult for fairies and completely impossible for their host. Finally, Kili worries that up there, the tender new shoots at the top are exposed to far too much sun and are likely to wilt. The sky is no place for little beansies.

Kili squints and looks up, wondering if the plant has stopped growing yet. 

He could, of course, fly up and check for himself, but that wouldn’t have solved the problem as such, and anyway, it’s a hot summer’s day. Besides, has learned long ago that nothing good ever came out of climbing unnecessarily tall plants.

Instead the fairy settles down comfortably against the tall trunk (by now the circumference of a 300-year old oak) and starts chattering about how much he loves tiny, petite, little plants, how he admires their delicate little leaves and how the cool shade close to the ground is just perfect for any self-respecting bean. 

The vine twitches –

And just then something tickles Kili’s nose. 

He huffs, but it only serves to tickle him some more. The fairy groans, cuddling closer and rubbing his nose sideways in an attempt to scratch the itch. This seems to cause an incomprehensible murmur nearby. 

Kili blinks, peering into the soft, warm darkness and identifies his brother’s back stretched right in front of his face, complete with his thick wing fluff, which is currently assaulting Kili’s nose. 

He kisses it softly, because that’s just the thing to do, when faced with Fili’s most sensitive bits, mouthing along the edge of the skin for a moment with no real intent.

“Hnnn??” Fili rumbles and twitches, which is an excellent response for him. With his free arm Fili reaches out to gather his brother to his chest, but has little success, with said brother annoyingly tucked in on the other side of him.

Grumbling, Kili shuffles a little bit higher, until his cheek rests comfortably against the smooth, warm skin of Fili’s shoulder, and completely unconcerned, pulls Fili flush to his chest, wings and all. 


	3. Kiss Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: M
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Damnitfili :)

Their first kiss isn’t until after the Battle and is crucial to bringing Kili back.

“Fili,” he whispers, trembling hands closing around Fili’s cradling his face. “All those dwarves…”

His eyes reflect hell.

Because Kili was the only one of their Company who still truly, deep in his heart, believed in good.

“Look at me Kili, just stay with me,” he pleads gently, pressing their foreheads together.

Kili has a wound to his stomach, but the worst of the blow was deflected by the good, heavy, dwarven chainmail, causing the blade to slide and enter Kili’s side at a shallow angle. It’s dangerous, but for a dwarf it isn’t deadly and Fili is already stanching the blood flow with a strip of his own shirt. Other than that, Kili’s left leg is lying in the mud at an unnatural angle, but Fili prefers not to think about that too much.

Fili received a blow to the side of his head, just behind his right ear and he can still feel the sticky rivulets of blood dripping unpleasantly behind his collar and smearing horrifically all around his neck. The blow was so strong that he doesn’t completely know where or when he is now, but the events leading him here are surprisingly clear.

He knows as soon as he comes round again that he must find Kili. If Kili is alive, he will love him. If Kili is dead, Fili will follow him.

It’s simple and honest and Fili is tired of complicated choices.

The second kiss feels natural, tastes of blood and dirt, but it brings Kili closer still, anchors him in the present. There is no shock, only careful response, familiarity, gratitude and overwhelming exhaustion.

“You believed in all of them, didn’t you?” Fili says simply. “In uncle, in us, in Gandalf. And now…”

“Yes,” reply shattered, honey-coloured eyes, deprived of their usual spark.

“Then believe in _me_ now. Believe in my heart. Just that.”

The silence fills the battlefield, interrupted only by the clank of metal somewhere in the distance and the flapping of the banner above their heads. Seven stars, the crown and an anvil over the two sons of Durin, and Fili only hauled it with him because he needed something to help him keep his balance.

“I do,” Kili croaks out eventually. “I always have. I love you, Fili.”

It simple, but then it always has been, for them.

They kiss for the third time and the battlefield around them doesn’t matter anymore. Nothing matters, except that they have each other and that Kili is able to hold himself together.

“Stay with me,” he asks quietly when he feels Fili move to settle down beside him.

“Always.”


	4. Kiss Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A gift for the wonderful, supportive, and generally fantastic aliceindurinland <3

Zero-G training was a basic necessity for all species who had space-faring ships dependent on the elves’ artificial gravity drives; it was even more important for the Khazad, many of whom spent their entire lives without spending more than two days in a row on a planet’s surface.

The Khazad of Erebor were as resistant to the idea as they were to any training that implied they wouldn’t take back their home world, but reality is a harsh mistress. They would have to learn to live in space, no matter what the conditions. 

They were aided in this by their cousins aboard the Iron Hills fleet. Dain was gruff and direct, but kind; he was the only king who had patience for Erebor’s stubbornness. “They’ll adapt and accept,” he was known to say, “it’ll just take a few decades.”

By the time Fíli and Kíli were coming of age, Dain’s assistance had become a matter of tradition. Every decade or so, the Blue Mountain would send a delegation of young adults for training aboard the Iron Hills’ various ships. For the majority of young Khazad, the most exciting parts of this trip were the possibility of meeting new people they hadn’t grown up tripping over and the fact that the Hills had a ship specially designed for zero-G training.

Fíli and Kíli, already disgustingly in love by the age of 75 and 70 respectively, didn’t feel any particular need to go mate-hunting. But being able to fly without so much as a spacesuit?

That was worth getting excited over!

That they quickly learned how to hack their way in to the training gym in the middle of the night only made it better. Especially since it meant they could get in enough secret practice that they wouldn’t turn green and slam into the walls like everyone else on their so-called “first” day.

Ship’s night transformed, for Fíli and Kíli, from a time of rest to a time of flying: flips and turns and races from one wall to another, stomachs lurching and eyes shining as every rule their bodies knew was thrown aside. 

Kíli took to it first, barely needing any adjustment at all. Fíli took more time, his solid Khazad form arguing that it was meant for stone, not air. But Kíli was unusually patient and Fíli characteristically stubborn, so by the third night Fíli was coasting nicely while his brother flipped and flew around him.

“Just watching you makes me dizzy,” Fíli said, but he was smiling, with that proud tone in his voice that always made Kíli feel ten feet tall.

Kíli grinned and twisted, planting his boots on the wall and kicking off – but carefully this time, slow and steady through the air as he flew to his Fíli, floating in the center of the room.

Fíli watched him and reached out just in time, catching Kíli’s arm and pulling him close. The momentum didn’t quite stop, but instead shifted, and they twirled lazily together, arms wrapping automatically and comfortably around waists.

Kíli beamed, that wonderful, broad grin that perhaps made him look more goofy than sexy, but it always made Fíli’s heart skip a beat at the pure joy of it. 

“I love you,” he announced, and Fíli didn’t bother trying not to grin back. Instead, he just swooped in and kissed that grin with his own, warm and wild and a little light-headed as Kíli tightened his hold and leaned into it.

Neither noticed when they gently hit the wall and went floating off in a whole new direction.


	5. Kiss Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: M
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Brave-And-Fierce-Dwarf :)

They met at university.

Kili was entering his second year, while Fili was about to start his post-grad. It was geology that brought them together, specifically a university-funded project, which allowed students to help with the analysis of the material from deep-borehole excavations.

What started as a friendly chat, as they worked on sorting the samples, continued over a coffee afterwards, which slipped seamlessly into a late supper at the tiny, hidden-away Chinese place Fili knew and eventually evolved into a leisurely, late-night walk.

Neither made it home before 3 a.m. and they both fell asleep, knowing they just met someone very special.

After that events progressed like a rockslide.

Two months later, Fili officially became Kili’s housemate, having taken up a room in a cosy little apartment, mere ten minutes away from the campus, which, he was convinced, Kili had managed to secure by means of witchcraft and disturbingly bright smiles.

Contrary to the popular belief, sharing a home didn’t make them start thinking with their dicks and fuck like bunnies.

Yes, sometimes Fili caught Kili sneaking out of the bathroom wet and haphazardly wrapped in a towel, trying to smuggle in fresh underwear or socks he’d forgotten, which caused Fili to very carefully cross his legs. Yes, once or twice Kili came home to find Fili with music in his ears, pedalling furiously on his favourite training bike, muscles shifting sinuously along his thighs, which forced Kili to take a rather cool shower.

But it never occurred to them that these things were anything urgent to take care of.

Instead they learned closeness – kind, warm and familiar.

 

\---

 

When asked one day by his best friend Ori about when they first started sleeping together, Fili offered his brightest smile and named one bleary day in late November.

Ori felt somewhat cheated, when the first saucy details followed.

Kili had simply fallen asleep on top of Fili.

They were both sprawled across the sofa, with the telly long forgotten and murmuring somewhere in the background.

Fili looked down surprised when he heard the first soft snores, but did nothing to dispel them. He was well familiar with the intensive regime of trying to cram far too much information in far too short a time, dosed up with industrial quantities of caffeine, typical for the week before the winter exam session. Luckily his current course allowed him far greater control over his own time, so Fili resigned himself to making sure Kili ate and slept and remembered how to smile.

The blond blinked, entranced for a moment, then chuckled and placed one hand in Kili’s hair, starting to toy lazily with the silky strands. With his other hand Fili reached for his tablet and started flicking through the latest online articles of Geology Today.

 

\---

 

By March, the two of them were planning a summer trip to Ireland together.

Fili was typing furiously on his laptop, looking up quaint little B&Bs, campsites, flights, interesting rock formations, local festivals and fairs, and a couple of other things, all at once.

They’ve only had this brilliant idea about twenty minutes earlier, so next to him, Kili was chattering excitedly, not bothering to make breaks for drawing breath.

“- Giant’s Causeway of course, the table rocks, monolithic circles, Ben Bulben –“ Kili gasped, fighting off the threat of suffocation –

\- And yanked Fili for a delighted kiss.

Fili blinked, thoughts derailed from where he was considering if they might be able to get into a couple of fascinating one-off lectures, took one shaky breath through his nose and snogged Kili right back.

That was their first kiss.

 

\---

 

Fili was waiting by the side entrance, watching a group of students pour outside hurriedly.

He’d arrived early and decided to pop into the library whilst he waited and somehow that little trip resulted in a neat stack of no less than five, fairly heavy books. This paused a bit of a problem, because Fili didn’t think to bring his backpack with him.

Still, it was a lovely, warm May’s day and the air was heavy with the sweet smell of blooming cherry trees, so even with his hands full, Fili felt quite content.

Finally a messy dark head appeared, along with a hand, which was just waving someone off. Kili turned, spotted him and trotted up cheerfully.

He gave Fili a happy little hello kiss, then repeated the process with Fili’s nose, causing an impatient huff.

Then he arched an eyebrow.

“I need these,” Fili argued. “One of them has finally been returned after three weeks!”

Kili gave him an amused eyeroll and wordlessly took off his backpack and opened it expectantly.

Fili carefully tucked the books in, while Kili ordered: “through the park!” taking a deep breath of fresh air.

They walked.

For a while they talked about their respective days, then argued about dinner and whether they should try and go swimming that evening or not. Finally a companionable silence settled between them, until Kili stopped right in the middle of a quiet footpath through the arboretum.

“Give me your hand,” he demanded, digging in his pocket for something.

Intrigued, Fili did, and a moment later was staring at a small, delicate, pink rose quartz. It was elongated in shape, no bigger than about three centimetres and had a beautiful, intricate golden seam, splitting like tiny lightening trapped in stone.

“Well? Do you like it?” Kili hovered nervously in front of him, eyes moving from Fili’s hand to his face and back.

“It’s beautiful,” he whispered, turning the mineral in his fingers, unable to draw his eyes away.

“I know your birthday isn’t until next week, but it arrived yesterday and I couldn’t wait –“

Fili was a man of science and academia, and therefore didn’t believe in all that New Age lore, but if he did, he might know that rose quartz was considered to be the stone of true love.

“I love you too,” he whispered into Kili’s grinning lips, somewhere between one deep kiss and another.

 

\---

 

Fili panted and held on to an equally buzzing Kili for dear life.

The sex had been celebratory and spectacular.

Earlier that day Fili learned that he’d managed to secure a position with one of the unusually small-scale, local companies, which serviced much larger oil-industry businesses with expertise and consulting in drilling technologies. He even managed to negotiate a contract that would allow him to work from home for two days of the week, so long as he agreed to travel around to company’s various sites during the remaining three.

They both only had two months of their last semester left to go, in which time Fili had to finalise and submit his thesis, as well as completing a course and a specific qualification, which his new employer put down as one of the conditions.

Kili of course had to pass his final round of exams, and was already looking through various booklets offering postgrad courses, but Fili felt that his heart wasn’t in it. Instead, it seemed to lie in sound editing, which had started as a hobby, but by now was causing Kili to spend more and more time with his giant headphones firmly pushed over his ears, a frown of concentration furiously fixed at his laptop. He already had links with several local radio stations and was currently working on a series of jingles he was planning to publish soon.

Fili peered to his right to watch a content, smug little smile on Kili’s face. The brunet was mouthing lazily at his skin, while his hand moved sneakily towards other regions of Fili’s anatomy, threatening a third earth-shattering ride, which Fili wasn’t sure they could survive.

The pleasure was returning, but slow and molten, and Fili figured he had enough time left to at least suggest an alternative course of action.

He pulled up his phone and tapped a few words in, then started patiently scrolling through the pages.

“I want a veranda, preferably at the back” Kili announced, his eyes tracing the screen with interest, while his fingers exerted just enough pressure to make Fili miss the button for the next page and hit an advert banner instead. “And some planters. We should start a herb garden, that’d be nice,” he suggested.

“I like how your list of priorities starts with all the bare essentials. How about other things like… rooms and a roof and –“

There was a moment of blunt pressure and then something slipped inside him, just the tiniest bit, and Fili decided that the property market would still be there after he’d had another orgasm.

They didn’t need to talk about buying a house or their future together. These things tended to slip around them as natural as air, and they graciously allowed them to happen, focussing instead on being madly in love with each other.

 

 

\---


	6. Kiss Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Lakritzwolf :)

The problem, like always, is the rain.

To be exact, it has been raining almost constantly for the past three days, and Kili is at the tattered end of his patience.

He feels frizzy, unhappy and itchy with all that damp in the air. The last time he’s left the house, was on day number one and by now Kili wouldn’t dare to leave it again, for the fear of trying to burn the clouds straight off the sky.

He’s spoken with his mother, of course, but she only looked at the sky and declared calmly that the weather front stretches for many miles and it would be like trying to keep a patch of the river dry.

So instead Kili is held hostage by the weather in his own home, snapping and sizzling occasionally at anyone who might approach. He often pulls his mother’s rocking chair right up to the fire, rolls up his trouser legs all the way up to his thighs and finally sticks his feet right in their main fireplace, where he feels fairly content with the flames licking at his calves soothingly.

His parents have long since learned to leave him to it on days like these, but Fili, thank Mahal, is happy enough to keep him company.

Because Fili feels just as unnerved as Kili does. 

With all that electricity crackling up in the air and the quiet rumble of a distant thunder, he feels like it’s all rubbing around him unpleasantly, teasing and taunting, with the power he could control with a flick of his fingers. 

Kili is very careful not to touch him like this without invitation and keeps his amusement to himself when Fili’s hair lifts up and dances around his head of its own accord from time to time.

They sit in companionable silence, Fili with his back resting against the warm breast of the fireplace, trying to read his book, but not very successfully, considering he hasn’t flipped the page in over ten minutes. Kili whittles down a piece of firewood he picked out of boredom into a shape that may or may not become a wild boar.

Finally, it’s the soft glow to his right that attracts his attention. He watches a beautiful, crackling blue star stretched between Fili’s fingertips, which his brother then closes back into non-existence, only to re-create another one, just as elaborate and beautiful.

“It gives me something to focus on,” Fili murmurs and this time closes his whole palm and opens it again to reveal a little, shimmering flower.

Kili smiles and decides to give it a go as well. He starts with something easy – a little fiery snake flickering and coiling around his fingers. Then he tries for a little bird, slightly mis-happen, but fluttering its fiery wings.

A tiny, glowing bunny from Fili, sharp around the edges from the zig-zags of electricity.

A smile and Kili feels himself perk up too.

He manages a little fiery horse, which gallops up his forearm only to jump into his elbow, singing the edge of his shirt.

Kili scowls and Fili chuckles, before creating a little squirrel, which loops around his wrist a couple of times playfully.

He doesn’t regret not having the Spark as a child – he understands the terrible responsibility that comes with it, but he also believes that it allows them a certain comfort.

“I know of something else that could help you focus,” he murmurs softly, because he misses his Fili while they keep their distance, because any substantial contact between them while they feel like this would be too dangerous. He extinguishes his latest half-formed creation and shakes his hand out, allowing it to cool down to its normal temperature, before extending it in a silent invitation.

Their eyes meet while Fili rubs electricity clean off his fingers and takes the offered hand so he can lean close.

“Okay?” he asks softly, waiting.

“Mmmm…” Kili murmurs, eyes fixed on his lips. “Just a little bit…”

They kiss gently, but hungrily, carefully tilting heads and trading little licks, and for anyone else but them it would feel like an explosion of sparks and charges wrapping them in a deadly cocoon of insane intensity.

“I love you,” one of them whispers, close, safe, protected.

“And I love you too.”


	7. Kiss Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Wyvernchick :)

“W-What???” Fili gasps, jumping away from the kitchen counter so fast that Kili nearly topples over from where he’s standing on top of his chair. “You kissed me!” he demands, an accusatory finger aimed at his little brother.

Kili is unimpressed. Stupid Fili, should appreciate just how much it cost him to do this. Kili has seen their parents kiss several times and has arrived at the conclusion that the whole thing is highly unsanitary.

“Amad said that the most important ingredient of all the best baking is love,” he explains patiently, calmly pouring the next portion of honey over the half-kneaded dough which is still mostly left on the table (and only partially covering Fili’s hands). “And I couldn’t have very well snogged the oven, could I?”

Fili eyes him suspiciously for a moment, then their dough, watching the honey find a way to dribble a bit off the edge and onto the floor.

“Well, you could have warned me,” he huffs.

“You wouldn’t have let me if I did,” Kili tells him matter-of-factly and tries, unsuccessfully, to re-capture the honey.

Fili’s hands have more success, as he uses the dough to scoop it. “She said that?” he asks carefully.

Kili nods solemnly. “She did. When we were making lemon cake last month.”

“That was a nice cake,” Fili murmurs thoughtfully.

“It was. More honey?”

“Not yet. Nose,” his brother orders, watching him warily.

Kili rolls his eyes, but obediently scratches the top of Fili’s nose because Fili’s arms are caked up to his elbows.

“And hair.”

He tucks the three errand strands displaced by Fili’s completely unnecessary flailing back behind his ear.

“Now honey.”

Kili sometimes wonders if they’d ever eat anything nice at all if he wasn’t helping in the kitchen.

“We’ve never tried making those before.”

“No.”

“We better not risk it…”

“That would be foolish. Especially considering how much honey –“

“If you move so much as an inch, I swear I’m going to wipe my hands in your hair,” Fili threatens and then leans in to deliver a surprisingly nice, soft kiss to Kili’s cheek.

Kili isn’t particularly worried by the comparison. He decides it was surprise on Fili’s part, rather than Kili’s technique, which spoiled his first attempt. And then he decides to try again, just in case, and for the sake of the gingerbreads.


	8. Kiss Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for My-T-Rex-Has-Fleas :)

He remembered the exact moment he lost Kili.

They were at an open-air ice ring, because Kili had insisted, because he loved skates, was much better at keeping his balance than Fili, and his bright, delighted smiles were enough to compensate for the various assorted bruises and a complete loss of dignity that Fili was about to experience. Not that Kili was much better at this than Fili, but the two of them were happy enough to amble along wobbily together.

Kili was just teaching him how to twist into little half-pirouettes, his hands on Fili’s hips, helping guide the movements of his body, Fili’s hands white-knuckled on top of Kili’s shoulders to keep his balance.

Kili gave a little push, Fili swayed dangerously, things glided smoothly, and then somehow they were both rotating in a slow, graceful circle.

He looked up to see a smug little grin and thought that the terror was worth it. “I love you,” he murmured to that daft face, deep and swelling with happiness right from his heart.

“I –“ Kili blinked when one of the fine, sparkling snowflakes lazily gliding through the air landed in his eye. He rubbed at it distractedly with one gloved hand, shook his head a little and –

By the time he looked up again, he wasn’t smiling.

“I don’t care.”

“What?”

Kili turned, hands leaving Fili’s hips, removing the support of his own body. Without it Fili overbalanced badly and felt himself falling to the cold, hard ice.

Kili simply left.

 

\---

 

Kili lasted another twelve hours in the house, restless and visibly unhappy.

When asked about what had happened, he simply said, “I had to go,” and eventually Fili left him standing by the window, staring broodily outside into the night.

It hurt, but deep down Fili felt too secure in Kili’s love, to seriously fret about a few cross words. He knew Kili well enough not to press now, when he was clearly upset and working through whatever was eating him up, and although he’d never known Kili to be cruel, Fili would wait patiently for when Kili was ready to talk.

By the morning Kili was gone.

 

\---

 

Fili missed the first announcement, which called it a virus.

He missed the second one, which called it biological warfare.

He was too busy searching for Kili, not trusting too much in the police, who seemed unusually busy. He filed his forms all the same, then drove around for hours on his motorbike searching, rang the family, friends… Eventually he put up flyers offering a small prize for any information about Kili’s whereabouts.

By then four long days and longer nights had passed and Fili’s heart felt like a lump of ice in his chest.

He finally caught the third announcement by accident, in a seedy bar, where his informant suggested they should meet.

“The lad up there, looks like your bird,” the burly man said and extended his hand to take the money. “They’ve been showing this on repeat for the last hour or two,” he added

Fili stared in mute horror as the TV in the corner showed a long line of people leaving the city, walking along the cold shoulder of the highway. He spotted Kili from miles away, recognised him by his favourite red hat with a giant pompom and then watched him walk right past the camera, face completely expressionless.

And then he sat down and started to listen.

 

\---

 

The thing that caught everyone unaware and unprepared was the scale of the phenomenon.

Tens of millions of people in US alone were now moving.  
It seemed to preoccupy their mind to the exclusion of everything else. They didn’t talk with one another, except where it was necessary. They didn’t bother to stop, but kept a pace that was slow enough that it could be maintained over prolonged periods of time. Seemingly, they’ve forgotten they could drive or use other means of transport, but would allow themselves to be driven, so long as they were going in the right direction:

North.

Nobody knew exactly how far up North, or where to.

They called it The Pilgrimage at first.

Because if prevented from moving, or unable to do so any longer, the victims would die within twenty four hours. There was no cause, it was as if their hearts just stopped, having reached a certain number of beats they were allowed.

When faced with a natural obstacle, unless presented with an obvious solution, they would hover in front of it for a while, until the need to go overcame even self-preservation instinct, and then try to scale it, no matter how impossible.

People waded into rivers, tried to cross valleys and canyons, walked into the deserts, if need be. The state was forced to deploy the military to assist, wherever possible, but there were so many groups, splitting and joining together, depending on whatever decisions they faced, that sometimes help simply arrived too late.

Later, a few weeks in, they called it The Snow Suicide.

But these were hardly some sort of zombie walks. The people affected responded to conversation, ate when given food, drank when given water, put on clothes if asked to do so. They didn’t try to harm anyone and they didn’t mind the attention either.

The society’s reaction was divided.

Some having gone through harrowing stages of fear, anger and then depression, chose to accept that their friends and family members died when they first came in contact with the glittering snow dust and allowed them to disappear into the horizon alone.

Some clung to the hope that whatever it was, had to run its course and once the people had done what they needed to do, they’d return.

Majority though chose to follow their loved ones and help them in any way they could.

Fili caught up with Kili a week after his original disappearance, in the next state over. He flung himself at Kili, torn between shouting at him and trying to shake him out of it and pleading and murmuring apologies, for what, he wasn’t sure.

Kili allowed it for a moment and then walked away again.

That was when the tragedy transmitted in the media, truly became Fili’s own.

 

\---

 

He followed on his motorbike for as long as he could, but he couldn’t sleep on it and Kili wasn’t stopping for the night. He walked alongside Kili then for a while, a heavy backpack full of provisions on his back. He then managed to catch a lift from an elderly couple following their son in a dated RV, which allowed him the luxury of sleep for the first time in ages.

He lost track after that, of the number of desperate people he’d met, number of conversations he’s had with Kili, which all felt hollow and one-sided, the number of times he’s had to improvise to allow Kili to continue his progress.

He remembered waiting at the Canadian border, holding Kili in his arms among a massive throng of people, watching him look towards North and waste away before his very eyes, while the authorities took twelve hour to agree and execute opening of the borders.

He remembered going in the back of a truck with a military convoy through snowy tundra.

He remembered Kili’s laughter on that ice ring that day and listened to his heart beat against its cage of ice in Fili’s chest.

 

\---

 

It came to an end on the shores of Hudson’s Bay, not too far off Fort Severn.

There were only fourteen of them left. There were no boats, having left trying to save others before them, days, maybe weeks earlier.

Fili watched the frown on Kili’s face, watched the decision form and set in firmly in his mind. He felt exhausted from trying to reach the man he loved, from watching people collapse and be rushed into local hospitals, from families saying their final goodbyes.

He closed his eyes and breathed in the harsh, icy air.

“Come on then,” he said with a smile, moving to stand in front of Kili, “give us a good night kiss.”

Kili watched him for a moment, then allowed himself to be pulled down into a soft, gentle kiss. It was nothing like their usual kisses, full of laughter or passion or just downright mischief, but it was more than Fili had for over a month and he’d take it, if it was all he could get.

He took Kili’s hand and walked into the water with him. It felt like daggers against his skin where the water found the way into his boots, then lapped around his ankles, then calves. He gasped, but kept moving, because Kili moved too and he wasn’t letting go of his hand.

Kili started slowing down when the water reached their thighs and they were both shivering so badly they could barely stay upright.

He finally stopped when they were submerged up to their waists.

“K-Kili?” Fili turned to look at that beloved face.

Kili was staring off into the distance, two fat tears sliding down his cheeks slowly. Something glistened harshly in one of them and then dripped wetly off the edge of Kili’s stubble and into the sea.

It was as if someone had flipped the switch. Kili gasped, swayed and reached for Fili, blinking rapidly and pulling him tight to his chest.

“F-Fili…” he managed to get out through his chattering teeth, arms squeezing him so tight it almost hurt. “I – I l-love y-you t-too.”

 

\---

 

Fili woke up in a hospital and his immediate thoughts were of all those people too weak to continue and rushed away for the one last doomed attempt at keeping them alive.

His eyes scanned the room and found Kili in a bed next to his own. He looked horrible – something Fili was used to by now - but was tucked in under a thick layer of thermal blankets and with an oxygen lead placed over his nose.

He was asleep, deep, slow breaths lifting his chest and Fili felt a flood of relief course through him, making him feel suddenly very sleepy himself.

“This is agent Burton,” said a new voice, attracting his attention. “He’s flown in all the way from Toronto to speak with you. He’s offered to take you back on a flight with him, but I suggested we should let you rest a little before we move you.”

The woman had short, curly hair and a friendly face. Wearing a white coat, Fili guessed she was a doctor.

He smiled at her gratefully and watched her return the smile.

“Yes sir, he’s awake now, sir,” the man, looking well over forty was on the phone and apparently intended to make the conversation three-way.

Fili was exhausted beyond belief, but if he was right about why someone might fly in all the way to Hudson’s Bay to talk with him, he understood the urgency. He blinked owlishly at the agent and tried to focus for a moment longer.

“Listen, we get dozens of reports like yours every day, but yours comes with a set of no less than six independent witnesses, who all testified that your friend turned around of his own free will and walked back. If there is anything you can think of that could help –“

“Eye drops,” Fili croaked. “Try eye drops.”

 

\---

 

_One year later._

 

 

Fili woke up slowly, his consciousness reporting little disjointed pieces of information one by one.

There was warmth, a familiar smell and a weight pressed tightly against his own. He smiled before he even bothered opening his eyes and felt for Kili’s hand over his stomach so he could twine their fingers together.

He felt a soft little kiss to the sensitive skin behind his ear and sighed in contentment. “On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me…” he sang to himself.

“I think you’ll find it’s actually the _second_ day of Christmas today, Fili,” he could hear the smile in Kili’s voice. “You know what that means, right? Do you think they’ll go ahead with it?”

“Mmmm… what’s the weather been up to?”

He felt movement, but allowed Kili to report back.

“I think it’s been at it all night! It’s still snowing, but not as bad as before.”

“Then I think they will. Everyone’s been terribly excited for it, you know.” Kili grinned against his skin and Fili thought about how lucky he was. “Aren’t we a little old for a sledge party though?” he prodded, mostly for the sake of teasing Kili.

“What’s the point of being a grown up, if you can’t do whatever you damn right please?” Kili answered, stifling a yawn against the nape of Fili’s neck.

He laughed and sunk in deeper into the pillows and love. If he was absolutely honest with himself, he was rather looking forward to some ‘dashing through the snow’ too.

Fili smiled; he supposed he wasn’t above a good snowball fight either.

 

\---


	9. Kiss Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to islandkate here on ao3 - hopefully they'll find out about it!  
> This takes place prior to our story The Gulf of Lune.

They didn’t run in the middle of the night.

Fíli shared an apartment with a roommate, one of the ancient rooms carved out of the mountain where people could still live if they were involved in the restoration and archeology teams. But Kíli still lived with their parents in Dale proper. Sneaking out in the middle of the day was too likely to draw the attention of a parent or roomie, depending. As a result, the decision was made to simply walk away one morning, leaving their entire lives behind.

They didn’t see each other at first. Kíli woke up first, too nervous to sleep in or even fake it. Luckily, he had a reputation as a morning person, so his mother only smiled over her coffee as he slipped out the door for a “jog by the lake.”

His heart wanted to stop, and run back in, and wrap his arms around her. He wanted to say goodbye, or ask her to come along or-

He grinned back and waved, closing the door to his family home behind him.

He knew he would never see it again.

 

Fíli woke at his usual time, well before his roommate. He’d slept, though he hadn’t expected to. Unlike Kíli, who had to leave the house empty handed to avoid suspicion, Fíli was able to carry a backpack with his last few things: a change of clothes for each of them, just in case; a small box of stones, the few pictures they’d carefully selected to bring along. 

Fíli walked out of his apartment and down the ancient halls, glancing briefly down each passageway that held the secrets of their dwarven past. His ancestors had built at such a grand scale that even now, their blood thoroughly mixed with human, everything felt too large and his steps echoed down the long passageways. 

There’d been a family dinner three days earlier, all forced good humor and awkwardly pretending that everything between him and Kíli was the same. Pretending they could stay there and live normal lives.

Fíli took the long steps out of the mountain, adjusted the bag across his shoulders, and began the short hike down to the bustling city of Dale.

 

They met at a small shop in the old Greenwood.

Kíli arrived first, damp from the beginnings of a morning rain. The shop wasn’t anything special; just a stop for snacks and petrol with a small parking lot in the back. Only two cars were parked there so early in the morning, and Kíli walked to the second with steps he wished were sure but were more hesitant. 

His new home, all green paint and sideboards, old but carefully and perfectly maintained.

He rested his hand against it, and tried not to think of his mother’s cookies or his uncle’s rare smiles or his cousin’s less-than-patient tutelage. 

Tears pressed at his eyes.

He was leaving everything behind. Everything except-

“Kíli.”

He turned, tears and rain splattering his face, and there was his brother, his Fíli, his-

Fíli smiled, though there was sadness too. “Ready?” he asked simply, because they’d talked this through so many times, made their plans, considered the alternatives. 

There was no reason to discuss it again. Their course was set.

Kíli looked at his brother – his Fíli – steady and strong and willing to do this: willing to run away and leave everything, everyone behind, so they could be together as they were born to be. 

He thought of cookies, and smiles, and learning, and it all became a part of this. A memory he could carry with him to the future. 

Kíli glanced at the car, filled with warm blankets and pillows and clothes and those handfuls of items they’d decided to bring along. 

He looked back at Fíli.

And he smiled.

“Yeah,” he said, and tilted his head into Fíli’s hand as his brother kissed him, warm and slow and full of all the promises of their unknown future together.


	10. Kiss Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Taupefox59 :)

It takes Kili a very long time to figure out where the best spot is.

There are many spots in the house that Fili frequents: their sofa for one, his bed and desk... But Kili needs more than just the perfect spot; he needs a diversion; a place that has a specific purpose.

Kitchen, he decides, right next to the kettle is ideal.

It isn't easy to tie the thing properly, either. 

He climbs onto a chair, but can’t reach, so he’s forced to take another precarious step onto the kitchen counter, where he finally manages to get to the spotlight he’d decided on. He nearly falls off on his way down, but is saved by a conveniently placed cupboard knob.

It’s totally worth it! 

Lured into the trap by the gentle suggestion a that some tea would be lovely with the blueberry scones that Kili brought back home, Fili turns around just in time for a sneaking Kili, (and he really should have known better than to assume that he could sneak up behind Fili) to receive a soft, sound, if a little chilly kiss straight on the lips.

Kili isn't quite sure what he was hoping for. He just had a vague idea that he'd wrap his arms from behind and kiss one round ear, or maybe a warm patch of the neck, if he was lucky, where he could tuck his cold nose in for warming up.

Instead he catches surprised blue eyes and then it’s as if he’s on auto-pilot: he closes the gap and refuses to keep the kiss light and insignificant. He doesn't want it to be heavy with expectation either, but he does want it to count, to convey all the love and care he feels for his One. It lasts exactly as long as it needs to last, but when he feels Fili simply responding, he decides to follow it up with another kiss: shorter, more chaste, and slipping seamlessly into a beaming smile.

“Merry Christmas, Fili,” he says, looking up at the twig of mistletoe dangling from the ceiling.

“Merry Christmas,” Fili repeats, distracted, then looks at Kili's lips, blinks... and kisses him again.

It is, after all, the season for giving.


	11. Kiss Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: M
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for WithywindlesDaughter :)

_ _

 

_April 1948_

 

 

The spring finds them deep in the snowy Scandinavian Mountains, travelling with a group of Sami, helping out with the annual reindeer migration onto their lush, summer pastures among the fiords of Norway.

It’s a stark contrast after the scorching heat of Africa, but Kili lasted only a week at home after their return, before he started making noises about their next adventure.

Fili wasn’t even surprised. It’s like a bug and Fili feels the need to go just as keenly as Kili.

As adventures go, this one is cheap.

They’re hardly rich and famous. Herding reindeer even pays a little, although not much, because enthusiasm and two able bodies aren’t worth anywhere near as much as experience.

Still, it’s clear to both parties that it’s not about the money.

For Fili and Kili it’s about a chance to explore the beautiful, forbiddingly harsh country, with experienced guides; about being able to immerse themselves in their culture and history, watch their lives and feel a small part of it all.

Kili scribbles away furiously in his journal in the evenings and Fili watches him with a soft smile on his lips, perfectly toasty in the cocoon he’s made for himself out of the offered furs.

He reckons there’s a new Viking-centred saga on the make, but he keeps quiet, recognising the slightly mad glint in Kili’s eye.

It’s the Sami who first tell them about the hot springs.

It’s been a long road so far, and a chance to rest a little and wash properly is much appreciated by all of the herders. The brothers choose to go last, which gives them the luxury of privacy for the precious few hours and simply means that they will have to catch up with the slowly moving herd later, following its very obvious tracks.

The feeling is completely surreal.

There is not another living soul (save the Sami) for hundreds of miles and only a handful of people know about the existence of this spring at all. The nature disregards them altogether, not too bothered by these strange, two-legged creatures, lost, with only their clothes and snow-boots in the middle of the mountains. The snow falls fat and lazy, typically for April, patiently topping up the deep snow drifts covering the valley. The soft twilight of the not-yet-quite-the-all-day-sun is only dispersed by two oil lanterns they have kept with them.

Fili is submerged up to his beard, basking in the warmth tenderly lapping at his tired muscles and chilled bones. For a while he’s occupied just by listening to the silence, then by watching the snowflakes melt on his fingertips where he’s stuck them out curiously, then by watching Kili scrubbing himself furiously with a piece of grey soap which Fili has passed him.

They need this silence, this non-being-around-people.

They’ve been trading kisses since they stopped hearing the reindeer, through the haphazard stripping of clothes and the subsequent alarmed hissing, even through Kili washing Fili’s hair.

But not the words.

They’re fine for words; they’re not fine for closeness.

Which would be why, as soon as Kili’s wild hair is rinsed, his best friend appears right in front of him, eyes intent and body pulled flush against Fili.

“Kili…” Fili rumbles happily, wrapping his arms around his waist and thinking something that doesn’t express itself well in words, something to do with ownership, pleasure, safety and contentment.

“Now, please,” Kili insists, rubbing his hips sensuously and allowing Fili to feel both their reactions despite their tired bodies.

Fili growls a little, emboldened by the little current of pleasure shooting up his spine and grabs straight for Kili’s ass to help with the smooth, rolling rhythm. “No hands,” he suggests, sparks of mischief in his eyes and because he knows they both _can_ now, after three long weeks.

“Nnngh…” Kili agrees, curling up closer and then wrinkles his nose before saying, “you smell like reindeer.”

Fili laughs and is forced to kiss him, so they can both focus on the satisfying, urgent grind without any further interruptions.


	12. Kiss Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for LadyGarnett7 :)

Kili kisses the laugh lines.

Feather-light brush of his lips over the crinkled skin, once twice, three times. 

They’re there, proving the existence of Fili’s pleased little chuckles, smug, dimpled smirks and that most wonderful, deep-chested laughter.

Kili watches them up close, surveying the delicate spider’s web running from underneath the pale lashes and wondering if more are hiding just under Fili’s moustache, around his mouth.

He’s just about to reach to see if he could just –

“I was dreaming that a great big hound from hell was breathing all over me,” croaks a hoarse, sleepy voice. “Dribbling too…”

Kili sighs and butts his forehead against a warm, hard collarbone. “Honestly Fili, you’re so much easier to love when you don’t talk.”

“Nonsense. You love me talking,” his brother practically purrs into his ear and then lazy fingers find their way into Kili’s sleep-mused hair.

This is acceptable, Kili decides, settling in, and employing his mouth to explore a smoother, but far more sensitive skin of Fili’s neck.

He knows that body better than Fili knows it himself; considers himself the great librarian of its every reaction and a virtuoso of causing them. Kili allows soft, gentle brushes of his lips, little licks into the dips and valleys, delicate nips where flesh raises stretched over the bone. A fine line in pleasure –just short of turning urgent and annoying, but more than the simple, kind affection.

He watches Fili’s breaths relax, while his body goes taut with thrumming tension; he watches a pleased little smile play in the corners of his lips and coax out the faintest of dimples. Fili will let him do as he pleases, especially now, when he’s sleepy, pliant and uncontrolled – a creature of pure sensation.

“I made pancakes,” Kili whispers right in his ear, because it won’t do to have Fili drift off once again.

“With what?” Even half asleep, Fili has his standards, and is unlikely to vacate the bed for anything less than the perfectly fluffy ones with sour cherries compote and sugar.

“I haven’t decided yet. I made the batter, but then I thought I’d need it for bribery purposes.”

That gets him a huff and something like a stir. “Come back when you have your offerings,” Fili demands. “Actually, no,” he changes his mind almost instantly, as soon as Kili’s lips pause in their ministrations over his neck. “Pancakes later. Love me now,” he demands imperiously.

Kili allows himself a triumphant little grin, which is completely lost on the blond. Fili is an absolute brat - used to be an excellent role model for Kili when they were younger – but he’s _Kili’s brat_ and in more ways than one.

“You’re going back to sleep again, aren’t you?”

“Mmmm.”

“You’re lucky I had the presence of the mind to cover the batter and put it in the fridge before I came over.”

“Clever little brother.”

“You should get me a T-shirt.”

“Mmf.”

These are Kili’s favourite moments. Before other people capture Fili’s attention, before there are things to do and places to be, and Fili’s love is a constant presence in his life of course, but this, now, is… _before_. It’s a stolen time, just for them, and Kili is ruthless in claiming it.

Pleased and drunk on the love which his heart insists on telegraphing to his brain, he curls up comfortably along the familiar bulk of his brother’s body –

\- and circles his thumb teasingly around one warm nipple.

This earns him a soft gasp, a twist and a small revolution in the bed sheets.

“Kili!” Fili hisses above him, narrow-eyed and panting, his hands pinning Kili’s wrists to the bed.

“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?! And speaking of ‘hard’…”


	13. Kiss Thirteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> written by DragonsQuill  
> as a gift for Drakkhammer :)

It wouldn’t be quite fair to say that surfing came naturally to them, but Fíli and Kíli felt confident that they had a somewhat lower occurrence of face plants than a good number of beginners. They were strong and solid, with fair balance and low centers of gravity – all of which worked in their favor when they first took to the waves.

Lune was a gulf, of course, so the waves were hardly the sort you’d see out on the islands. More experienced surfers tended to toss their long braids and disparage the small waves that made their way to Lune’s coast; but it was plenty for a pair just starting out. Especially a pair starting out who were too stubborn to start with basic paddling. No, they were going straight to surfing or nothing!

If their poor bodies ended up bruised and beaten because of it, well, that was the price one paid for glory. At least they were bruised and beaten together, and had an excellent excuse to laze around in a hot bath, trying to loosen the muscles enough to face another attempt the next day.

Their three buns approved as well – any excuse to get the two of them still and lazy in the evening, perfectly situated to serve their true purposes as bun chairs: Dot bossily in control of Kíli’s lap, MegaBun sprawling lazily across both, and NewBun curled up like a precious little ball of fluff on Fíli’s shoulder.

“He makes a decent heating bun,” Fíli said one night after an especially disastrous crash, and Kíli murmured sleepy agreement. 

With time and effort, however, both brothers learned to stand and ride on the waves, hooting and hollering with enthusiasm more suited to the high breakers of the Enchanted Isles. They rose out of the relatively small waves like well-tanned young gods, striking through the waves, rolling into the sand, laughing, calling out and one-upping each other, until they splashed and tumbled to the shore and rolled neatly to their feet.

The resultant chorus of wolf whistles and cheers did nothing to calm their fun-fueled egos.

They didn’t garner the attention of the local paper, however, until the day MegaBun decided, in his immense wisdom, that he, too, wished to ride the waves.

“He’ll drown,” Fíli worried, as MegaBun parked himself on Kíli’s board and refused to move.

“Aw, come on, you can’t deny him the call of the waves!” Kíli protested. “Look at that face! He’s a wild bun!”

Mega blinked sleepily at them and hunkered down a bit more, his long ears flopped dramatically at his sides.

Fíli shook his head. “I know they can swim but this seems dangerous-”

“Oh, stop being an old man.” Kíli lifted the board with extreme care. “We’ll just paddle a bit and it’ll be awesome. He has his leash on, I’ll hold on to it, and we won’t go on any actual waves.”

Fíli definitely didn’t look approving, but he did shrug acquiescence. “He’s your bun.”

Kíli snorted and started into the water. “They’re usually only my buns when they eat the wallpaper!” he called over his shoulder as he waded to water deep enough to set down his board.

MegaBun never wavered.

From the first moment, he was a brick of a bun, perfectly balanced, and easily attuned to the shifting water, the gentle swells.

He was a master of the (very small) waves.

The first time Kíli insisted on standing and taking on a small breaker, Fíli yelled at him from the beach, foreseeing rabbit disaster.

But MegaBun just lifted his face into the spray and luxuriated in their shared power over mother nature.

“That,” Bilbo commented on a rare day at the beach with the Boffins, “is a seriously happy bun.”

And he snapped a picture that ended up on the front page of the local paper’s Fun in the Sun page: Surfing Bunny Takes on Lune Waves.

Both Fíli and Kíli loved it, and Fíli – despite making Kíli promise to only paddle with their precious bundle from now on – framed it and stuck it on the wall of their living room. 

It wasn’t the only photo Bilbo took that day, though, nor was it the only one that ended up adorning the walls of their precious home. Their favorite was of both of them, MegaBun hanging docilely from Kíli’s arms, more asleep than awake, as Fíli leaned in and pressed a laughing kiss to Kíli’s lips that tasted of salt, and joy, and sunshine.

This photo – wet and sandy and a little sunburnt on Fíli’s part – was given a place of honor in their old-fashioned kitchen, right where they would see it when they made breakfast in the morning. 

“It feels like home,” Kíli said as Fíli carefully straightened it to perfection. And Fíli, his eyes warm, pulled Kíli close and kissed him again. And again.

And he kissed his Kíli there every morning thereafter, cups of coffee in hand, the sun rising over the beach, and buns dancing around their feet.


	14. Kiss Fourteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Nelioe :)

Fili hesitates less than an inch away from Kili’s lips.

There are over three million dwarves inhabiting the mountain, of which more than half a million are his own people. And every single last one of them is watching them with abated breath.

If he does this, the two kingdoms will be joined forever.

He closes his eyes and breathes, slowly, simply sharing the space with Kili. 

Kili, who doesn’t rush him. He leans in, cheek brushing against cheek, almost comforting touch of forehead against forehead. He knows it would be enough for Kili; but not for the people.

The thought is a lie: this isn’t about the _two kingdoms_ at all.

That has already happened, a moment ago, when he said _’yes’_. He needs to let go of that battle and focus on the truth.

This is about Fili.

It’s personal, kind, quiet and intimate. It’s about touch, words and laughter. It’s about two dwarves, nothing more, nothing less, about giving up a piece of that fierce independence in his heart. Ever since he can remember, his freedom was his greatest treasure, woven tightly into who he is. Superior armies, threat of starvation, even captivity, haven't managed to take that away from him. And now...

The problem is, nobody's _trying_ to take anything away from him. If they were, then his twin swords, his friends, his people know well enough how to defend him. Instead, Fili feels like he _should_ , like he _wants to_ give something up; he wants to belong and that by its definition is the opposite of freedom, isn't it? 

Warm hand comes to rest on his cheek, conveniently hiding them from view and Kili says, “just me, Fili. Just you and me,” as if he could read his mind.

This is about the feeling, which he promised himself he wouldn’t allow to rule over him. It’s about taking the crown off, sometimes; about trusting enough to talk without thinking, about asking for and offering support. About that tiny part of himself that is just _him_.

 _That’s_ what the kiss is about. 

He looks up slowly and simply meets Kili’s eyes, allowing the hand to slip lower to his jawline. He doesn’t look away when he closes the gap between them; he's braver than that.

This one thing Fili takes for himself, because he wants to. 

And then he simply doesn’t care. He sinks into the sensation: care and need and safety and love, all wrapped up into one and sinks into it, tilting his head on instinct and learning the true meaning of _'anything. You can have anything you want, Fili.'_

Somewhere, far, far beyond Fili and Kili, the crowd roars in elated delight.


	15. Kiss Fifteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Archer-and-Lionprince :)

It isn’t quite the spur of the moment.

But it is definitely an instinct, planted firmly in the fertile soil of searching all their lives for someone – 

No, not even someone right, but just this one very specific person they have lost somewhere in the hurricane of history.

Kili likes all things elven. 

He tries to be nonchalant about it, but it’s blatantly clear in the way his eyes widen at the elegant (still completely unprotected by any handrails, even after all these millennia) bridges over waterfalls disappearing into the floating mist of Rivendell. He watches the slim columns of the elven halls and the filigree decorations on everything that could be decorated and runs his fingertips over the cutlery.

So it’s no surprise to Fili, when he finds him standing on one sprawling balcony, staring at the full moon, as if he could drown in it.

“You think it’s the One Ring,” Kili offers calmly, not bothering to turn around, surprising Fili with his knowledge of obscure lore. 

“Yes.”

“And you think it should be – what? Destroyed?”

“Last time it made an appearance we had The War of The Ring.”

“Which incidentally kick-started modern diplomacy in Middle Earth.”

“Hardly the price worth paying, especially in a stable political landscape of today.”

“You’re conveniently forgetting the Orcish Clans, the Black Earth, the Uruk-Hai, or the Goblin terrorist groups. Not to mention the flying lizards.”

“You think you could take The Ring and control them? Or is it that you’d use its terrible power to unite the Free Races in the fight against those who still believe in the second coming of The Enemy?”

This time Kili turns. “No. The Ring, if it’s real, must be destroyed,” he says calmly.

Fili nods, acknowledging the truth he sees in his words.

“What I don’t understand,” Kili continues, “is why it should be you. Dwarven Prince, chasing an ancient artefact, possibly risking an international scandal or two…”

The question hangs between them for a moment. 

“Because I know.”

“No. Try again.” Kili crosses his arms on his chest and waits patiently.

Fili sighs. “There was a Fellowship, once. It counted among its members a representative from Erebor. It was them few that stood against uncountable many and turned the tide of history. That memory is worth nothing less than a prince.”

Kili watches him for a moment and something stirrs in Fili’s mind, just outside the edges of his understanding. 

“Close. But I don’t think that’s all there is to it.”

Now it’s Fili’s turn to arch an eyebrow in a challenge.

“It’s a link to history for you,” Kili says, eyes growing unfocussed as his gaze drowns in Fili’s own. “A history where you’ve lost something. You must have rebelled and fought to get your degree, and you’re not the type to rebel without a good cause.”

The impulse is strong, like swooping low over the waves, dipping your fingers, but not quite diving in. 

Fili doesn’t resist, because just as easily as Kili has drilled down to the real meaning of his words, Fili sees the truth in Kili just as plainly.

Instead he crosses the few steps separating them and kisses the young dwarf as familiar as breathing, kisses him until the voices in his mind whispering about the One Ring are all silenced.


	16. Kiss Sixteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Calicoskatts :)

Fili looks up from the document in his hands even before the sigh can be heard. 

Behind his side of the giant desk they share, Kili flops dramatically against the backrest of his chair, allowing the paperwork to land in a haphazard pile in front of him. 

“I don’t know what to do with the Men from the South,” he announces, glaring at the neat runes lining the paper. 

Being a Royal Consort, Fili realised a long time ago, isn’t much different to being the King. Maybe except one doesn’t get the first pick of their own apartments in the Royal Wing. Which, in Kilis case, is completely irrelevant anyway, because Kili chose, at exactly the same time as Fili, and exactly the same chambers.

Fili pushes back the chair and pads around the desk, to lean against the pile of Kili’s trademark ‘organised chaos’, taking in the furious brows and tired eyes.

“The distance puts into question the point of the entire operation,” Kili continues. “Reliability is likely to be horrendous, but then the exotic goods they promise to deliver may create a good, vibrant market of its own. And of course there’s the prestige the Mountain would gain, offering such products.”

“That coffee thing they gave us was nice,” Fili remembers and tries to think of the other creatures, fabrics, metals, spices and foodstuffs that were presented to them only a fortnight ago. 

“It was, wasn’t it?” Kili offers a soft little smile, running his fingers through his thick, neatly trimmed beard. “So I was thinking, maybe a niche little market, letting the Merchant’s Guild –“

It’s not that Fili isn’t interested in the Men from the South; but he’s much more interested in his brother.

There’s a distinct frown-line forming between Kili’s expressive brows. Lines, stubbornly crossing his forehead and other ones stretching in either direction from his unusually delicate nose towards his mouth.

He addresses the frown-line first, gently cradling Kili’s face in his hands and kissing right over it. He can feel the skin relaxing under his lips, the eyebrows slowly sinking back down, where they belong when Kili is happy. He keeps at it, venturing to the right first and then to the left.

“Are you even listening to me?” Comes a quiet murmur somewhere close and Fili can tell that his brother’s expressive, almond-shaped eyes have softened, eyelids slid to half-closed.

“Of course. I wouldn’t tax them for the first six months, in encouragement. It will help you work out the right prices too.”

He moves onto one prominent cheekbone and pushes away from the desk, to settle down more comfortably right in Kili’s lap.

“Mmmm…” Kili agrees, eyes now closed and letting Fili do what he wants.

By the time Fili kisses him properly, deep and slow and searching, Kili’s hands are roaming across his back. It’s quiet now, and they stay close, lips searching corners of the mouth, easy breaths traded between them.

“This makes everything worth it, you know?” Kili whispers, sounding breathless and content.

“I know,” Fili agrees. “Now that you’ve got your answer for tomorrow, I think you should come to bed and pleasure your king.”

Kili laughs at that and gives a light, playful smack to Fili’s bottom in a signal to get up and move. “I think you’ll find that it’s you who wants to pleasure me tonight,” he decides and it’s not even that he’s trying to be cocky, it’s just that Kili knows Fili better than he knows himself.

An interested twitch tells Fili that he’s right, but he is the King damn it, he has a reputation to maintain: “do I now? We’ll see how persuasive you are.”


	17. Kiss Seventeen

This is a gift to Linane, written by Dragonsquill  
It is inspired by a beautiful work of art by Linane!

Lust at first sight is a thing. He’s felt it before - seeing someone, feeling that pull in his gut (maybe his groin) of chemistry. Sometimes it pans out, and sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s all about sex and not about love.

Love is distant and elusive and, Kili’s fairly certain, impossible. He’s searched for a lifetime and never found it; at 35, he’s decided it’s a fairy tale. Everyone he’s dated, everyone he’s taken home, is missing something. What, he has no idea, and it’s damn frustrating.

Romance is a fairy tale, so love at first sight is clearly a complete fabrication-

-or so he believed until this moment, on a day like any other, crammed in the early morning passenger train into New York with a thousand like-minded souls with ridiculously early shifts. 

It’s only a glance - he prefers watching people to staring at his phone or reading a book, so he looks up and down the car to check for familiar faces or interesting newcomers. He sees a flash of honey blond hair and a ridiculous hat that has “hipster” practically stamped on it, and keeps looking. Hipsters are not his type.

Drinking bad beer shouldn’t be part of a life philosophy.

It’s the second look, though, when he sees the stranger’s eyes.

They are blue - the sort of blue you see at a distance, the kind that exist in books and photographs but never in real life.

Blue.

And kind, his mind whispers, which is ridiculous. You can’t tell someone’s personality from his eyes. This isn’t an Arthur Conan Doyle short story.

The man is looking out the window, his expression soft and thoughtful, and-

_loyal_

_teasing_

_thoughtful_

_intelligent_

_brave_

_strong_

_kind_

Emotion washes over Kili, unfamiliar and yet-

_Your eyes are so kind, brother_

his own voice, rough and low

and then, teasing, a voice he’s known since birth, seems like the first he ever heard: 

_Just how high is that fever, Kili?_

It’s almost a vision, if he believed in such things, crowding into his mind and filling his senses: a cluttered room, chattering voices, everything too-big and too-hot and those eyes looking down at him with obvious fear and infinite kindness.

The image is so complete that Kili feels a cough wrack his body, and he comes back to himself half out of his seat on the scarred old train he’s ridden five days a week for three years. 

The woman next to him asks if he’s all right and offers a tissue, but Kili can only stutter his thanks as he stares at the man looking out at the riding sun-

my brother

though Kili is an only child.

Kili has never been shy, but he’s still shocked to find himself standing, walking down the gently swaying aisle with the ease of a long-time commuter, and coming to a stop in front of this stranger he’s known all his life.

His heart pounds in his chest - joy, he realizes, not nerves, not fear - as the blond lifts his gaze away from the sunrise to meet Kili’s own dark eyes.The blue eyes widen.

“Oh,” the stranger says, and he isn’t a stranger at all, because Kili knows that he is smart and strong and a bit of an arrogant brat. 

He is everything Kili has been waiting for, everything Kili needs and wants and-

“Can I sit here?” Kili asks, pleased that his voice doesn’t crack with the million emotions swirling in his chest.

The man smiles, sunshine and that splash of (over? - no, well-earned, well-deserved) confidence. His eyes crinkle at the corners. “Of course,” he answers, as if there was any doubt.

Kili sits.

For a moment, they stare at each other - those blue eyes flicker over his face and down his chest and up again, and apropos of nothing, the love of Kili’s life says, “You should think about brushing your hair.”

Kili grins, because it’s exactly the right thing to say, even if he doesn’t know why. He reaches out, not feeling at all daring but instead fully justified, and catches the soft end of the braid the man wears in the midst of his low ponytail. He lifts it in his fingers (suddenly too long and too pale in his eyes, but it’s fine) and presses a kiss to the gently curling strands, the texture familiar against the sensitive skin of his lips.

“Cheeky,” the man murmurs, and Kili grins against his prize and says: “You love it.”

A breath.

A world, a million unknown memories clicking into place, and then:“I do,” softly, and Kili knows he’ll never again be truly alone.


	18. Kiss Eighteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for DragonsQuill :)
> 
> This may or may not be a little follow up to Kiss Seventeen, a bit into the future, because I was having thinky thoughts!

Kili could only groan from where he was submerged in the scalding hot water and bubbles up to his nose. Everything hurt. His legs were on fire. He was actually miserable enough that he was happy to stay quiet most of the way back.

It was worth it, though, Kili decided. It was worth it for the laughter, for the chance to act like absolute brats and that one glorious moment when Fili landed in a snowdrift so deep that he disappeared up to his waist.

“Here, drink this,” announced a voice from the door and soon a tumbler appeared in front of Kili, condensation already setting on the sides of the glass. “It will help you relax.”

He sniffed cherry brandy over ice and took a heavenly little sip. “Broken as I am, it will make me sleepy too, so if I drown in my own bath, I am going to haunt you,” he threatened, just in case.

“Best I stay and keep an eye on you then,” Fili offered with a mischievous grin and leaned down to press some buttons on the glowing panel at the side of the bath.

There was a quiet hum and then the jacuzzi function kicked in, making his whole body wobble pleasantly among the bubbles.

Kili moaned and made a production of flopping back, so he could peer at Fili through half-closed eyes.

“Right,” Fili said, making himself comfortable on the side of the bath on the opposite end, “what hurts the most? Legs?”

“Shins,” Kili admitted, even as Fili was already reaching under water to take hold of one of his ankles. “I think I have bruises all the way to the bone.”

“Drama queen,” Fili rolled his eyes, but his strong hands were already kneading over the aching muscles and Kili was prepared to let him do _anything_ so long as he didn’t stop. “Shower gel,” the blond ordered, and Kili obeyed instantly.

With the added soft lather and a subtle smell of almonds filling the air, Fili’s hands were gliding over his skin in a wonderful, rolling rhythm, which started at Kili’s ankle, then moved over his calf, up to the knee and then along the front downwards to the foot, stretching and relaxing, taking away the stiffness and leaving behind only the oddest pleasant ache.

“Did you enjoy it though?”

“Loved it,” Kili replied truthfully, grinning over the edge of his glass. “Skiing is fun, once you have your balance right and you accept that your feet are sort of weird elongated hoofs.”

Fili laughed and Kili’s heart did its customary little backflip. Fili’s hands moved to work over his foot, his thumb pressing into the arches and stretching his toes. Suddenly something clicked and decidedly changed its position within Kili’s sole.

“I think you broke my foot,” Kili said in a voice that sounded like he didn’t mind if Fili did it a couple more times.

“I’m a physiotherapist, remember? Trust me, I know how to break your bones, and this wasn’t what that was.”

Kili hummed and didn’t argue, fully aware that Fili was the most competent person he knew. He watched as Fili finally let go of one leg and picked the other one, visibly relaxing as he was doing this. His eyes have slipped closed, his head to resting against the tiles and there was a hint of a smile playing on his lips. 

Fili loved his job and who was Kili to deny him?

“You know, I always thought you might have wanted to be a doctor. You’re focussed enough and kind enough,” he murmured, allowing his pleasantly swimming thoughts to spill into words between them.

“I’ve considered it,” Fili answered, not bothering to open his eyes. “But I found physiotherapy more satisfying. It’s more… hands on. You have this direct contact with your patient and you can immediately see if what you’re doing is right or not. You don’t get to hide behind chemicals and equipment.”

Kili chuckled. “Yes, you were never one to hide behind anything.”

“You’re not exactly complaining about my career choices.”

“No, I’m really not.”

By the time Fili was done, Kili felt like his bones and muscles have turned into jelly.

“Carry me,” he demanded, swaying on his feet, tying off his fluffy bathing robe distractedly and wanting nothing more than to lean into Fili and stay close. “Please,” he added, because he wasn’t actually trying to be difficult.

“You are such a brat,” Fili grumbled, but lifted him in his arms as requested, which felt a bit odd, with Kili being the taller one, until he curled up against his chest, so Fili could manoeuvre them out the door. “Bed or sofa? There are ski jumps on in twenty minutes, if you wanted to join me?”

“Yes, okay, sofa,” Kili decided, blinking owlishly against Fili’s neck. “Who are we cheering for?”

“The Fins. They have the best technique, they were just unlucky with the wind during qualifying.”

“The Fins it is,” Kili agreed and shuffled as they both settled comfortably on the sofa.

The telly relayed some excited voices discussing slope conditions, Fili watched and Kili dozed right in his bathing robe and cocooned in another warm, soft blanket, waking up from time to time when someone landed particularly far and pressing happy little kisses to Fili’s pulse point, because he could. Fili smiled and returned the kisses with some of his own to the top of Kili’s head.

Outside, the thick, heavy snowflakes danced in the howling wind, creating brand new traps for Kili tomorrow, which would no doubt require a whole new course of treatment.

“S’ the best holiday ever,” Kili muttered, so full of love he felt like he could start glowing with it at any moment.

“Only because you’re here with me,” Fili replied and then they needed no more words, as Kili pushed up a bit, Fili leaned down and they kissed properly, trading pleased little hums and completely missing the moment when the Finnish contestant won, breaking the world record no less.


	19. Kiss Nineteen

This chapter is written by DragonsQuill for tigerlilliesandcherryblossoms :)

\---

They both agreed that kissing and cuddles should be more…intuitive…than it was.

Not to say they weren’t getting it right! Of course they were! Especially if they could grab a few minutes while Fowl was off hunting and not running interference. They had mastered, if they did say so themselves, the ever-important standing kiss; no longer did noses bump, or Fíli mutter to himself about having to lift up just a bit on his toes, or Kíli get the giggles because of the silken slide of the braids beside Fíli’s lips. 

Yes, they had definitely not only gotten the hang of kissing, but were developing an impressive skill set.

However, at the moment they were tucked at the base of a tree, in the beautiful light of a crackling fire, a faint chill in the air – staring at each other.

Kíli, ever the one to leap straight into danger, finally said, “Listen, it clearly makes more sense for me to be in back-”

“I’m older than you!”

“-because I’m taller.”

Fíli’s eyes narrowed.

Kíli’s widened, attempting to look innocent. 

Fíli growled under his breath.

“I don’t know why you’re complaining!” Kíli protested. “I’ll have my back against a scratchy old tree while you’ll have a soft brother-back AND your toes will be closer to the fire!”

Quite frankly, Kíli felt like his brother, as always, was getting the better end of this deal. If he wasn’t so head over heels in love with Fíli, he’d be a bitter, conniving little brother indeed.

Fíli, ever the one to stop and consider a situation before jumping in feet first, took a moment to consider his brother’s argument. “Fine,” he said, and Kíli grinned, cozied up against the tree, spread his knees, and looked up expectantly.

Fíli rolled his eyes. “Stop being so….”

“Adorable?” Kíli offered, his grin somehow managing to spread.

Fíli shook his head but gave in, turning and scooting until his back was to Kíli’s chest. Kíli felt his heart give a few besotted thumps as he wrapped his arms around Fíli’s body, solid and strong and wonderfully warm. 

“Yes,” Fíli finally agreed, and Kíli very nearly giggled into the slightly tangled strands of honeyed hair currently attempting to cut off his oxygen supply.

“Could you maybe move your head to the side?” he asked after a moment enjoying the glow of cuddles with the love of his life. He was more than a little concerned that he was going to eat some of Fíli’s hair, and his brother was deservedly proud of that mane and wouldn’t appreciate losing a chunk of it to Kíli. 

Fíli acquiesced, shifting his shoulders and head so that his was tucked, more or less, against Kíli’s right shoulder. He made a small, pleased noise as his muscles, at first tense and uncomfortable, slowly relaxed.

He’s heavier than he looks, Kíli realized as all those muscles relaxed their weight onto his body. But it was fine. Kíli was stronger than he looked, and luxuriated in the trust radiating off his older brother. 

It felt…

…Nice.

Right.

Perfect.

Overcome by the perfection of the moment, Kíli swooped in for a kiss.

Which landed directly on Fíli’s ear.

“Hmm?” Fíli murmured.

Kíli knew that hmm very well. “You were falling asleep!”

“No I wasn’t,” but his voice was just the tiniest bit slurred.

“You were! You were falling asleep!” Kíli couldn’t decide if he was delighted or horrified. On the one hand, Fíli was obviously comfortable. On the other, Kíli was more than just a mattress!

Fíli chuckled, the kind that always made Kíli warm up in very specific places, and Kíli couldn’t help one little squirm. “C’mere,” Fíli said, and oh, yes, that particular word always meant warm, lovely kisses for Kíli. Kíli leaned down, pleased, and-

“All I can reach is your eyebrow.”

Another chuckle, more a laugh, and Fíli shifted and curved, reaching up with one hand to catch Kíli’s chin. “Don’t give up so quickly,” he admonished, and pulled Kíli down until their lips touched.

Kíli’s left shoulder panged a brief protest at the odd twist his neck was pulling off, but Kíli ignored it in favor of a series of delicate kisses, light and loving and absolutely-

“Perfect,” he sighed, and maybe he blushed a little as Fíli’s pleased laugh filled the little glade.


	20. Kiss Twenty

This chapter is written by DragonsQuill for the lovely Ceallaig!  
\----  
They met when Kíli was 8 and Fíli was 10, and they bonded over how ridiculous they considered their parents to be.

Kíli’s mom was a widow and Fíli’s dad was divorced, and they had no qualms about being totally gross when they dated and fell in love and got married and informed the boys that they would be living together “from now on.”

They grew up under each other’s feet, fighting and playing and following and pestering, until people in high school occasionally refused to believe they weren’t actually brothers. Kíli even got to go to Fíli’s senior prom, as the “passably attractive, don’t worry, you’ll grow into those hands and feet some day” date of one of Fíli’s friends.

It was only when Fíli left for college that everything went to hell. 

Their parents started fighting, and less than a month before Kíli’s seventeenth birthday, his stepfather’s infidelity came to light and divorce proceedings began.

“Don’t worry,” Fíli told him when he came home for Durin’s Day. “We’ll always be brothers, no matter what those idiots do.”

But then Kíli’s idiot – his mother – packed up and moved them to the other side of Arda in a fit of pique. “I don’t want you anywhere near that man,” she growled, ignoring that “that man” had been Kíli’s father longer than his original one. “I won’t have you turning out like him or that playboy son of his!”

How his mother had decided that Fíli, who was essentially a friendly nerd, was a playboy, Kíli didn’t know. He asked, but it only caused a fight – and then they were gone, and Fíli was a ten hour drive away. 

_We can still e-mail and text!_ Fíli assured him, and they did.

For a time. 

But Kíli grew up and his mother became bitter and Fíli got busy, so within three years they were Winter Card friends, and not family. 

It broke Kíli’s heart more than a little, but it was easier to avoid his mother’s very present anger than fight to keep in contact with his very distant no-longer-stepbrother. All in all, it was easier to avoid most people – naturally friendly and outgoing as a teenager, Kíli became quieter and more focused as he learned how it felt to lose someone you loved. 

Exactly how much and how he loved Fíli was something he came to understand a bit better as well. 

Years passed, and Kíli graduated, and he found his own place in the bustling city of Dale. He lived alone for 13 months before he met a great love of his life during an adoption bazaar at the local park – a somewhat lopsided mop of hair that he was assured was a bona fide Yorkshire Terrier, she just hadn’t quite read the manual and so was more than twice the size she was meant to be. “We had to remove the eye on her right side, too,” the cheerful volunteer told him, and Kíli fell head over heels for her one-eyed grin. 

Kíli named his new love Gracie, and brought her home to his small apartment only three blocks’ walk from the park where they met. 

Gracie changed Kíli’s life. He stopped working until after dark, because he needed to get home to her. He stopped hiding out in his apartment because she needed to go for a walk. And he started making new friends, returning to the outgoing, friendly ways he’d embraced before everything fell apart his junior year of high school. 

But she did more than that.

Gracie, the sneaky little brat, gave him back his heart’s desire.

She did this, in typical Gracie fashion, by meeting her own gentleman love one afternoon while they were walking. Like most terriers, Gracie felt that leashes existed primarily for decoration, and she was blessed with a tenacious strength that occasionally ripped hers free of Kíli’s hand if he let his mind wander too much. It was certainly wandering that day, revisiting the distant past and puppy love and handsome big brothers, and she took full advantage.

With one artful tug at just the right moment, Gracie was off like a shot.

“Gracie!” Kíli cried, even though he knew he was wasting his breath. Gracie was, once again, a terrier; her name interested her only when she wanted it to. No, she shot across the open park without so much as a glance over her hairy shoulder, dead set on one goal:

A handsome brown and tan dog, walking politely on his leash at the side of an even more handsome blond man.

“Gracie!” Kíli yelled again, foreseeing disaster, but Gracie only barked her joy to the heavens as she barreled straight into the handsome man’s legs.

Depth perception was not his dog’s strong suit.

The man started and his dog wheeled, and Gracie, clearly wanting to introduce herself properly, wiggled and twisted and turned and barked at presented her hindquarters to the black and tan dog – utterly tangling the poor stranger in her leash as she did so.

“Oh shit,” Kíli breathed as Blond and Handsome crashed to the ground, landing firmly on an ass that Kíli couldn’t help but note was very shapely indeed. He raised his voice as he neared them, glad he was in good shape and wasn’t gasping. “I’m so sorry!”

The blond blinked, and shook his head, then looked at his dog – surely a German Shephard mix of some kind – as he leaned down and touched friendly noses with Gracie.

And then he laughed.

It was a great laugh, a little hoarse and very free and so-

-familiar.

Kíli stopped. 

It couldn’t be.

“Fíli?” he asked, figuring he’d sound a complete idiot because there was no way that this random dog owner was his Fíli, but-

“Yeah! Have we met? I just moved here-” Fíli chuckled as he reached down to free himself from Gracie’s hold. Then it was his turn to stop and look up. His eyes widened – just as blue as Kíli’s blushing teenage self remembered – and then he grinned, bright and sunny and somehow a bit arrogant, and said, “Kíli!”

Kíli felt his own grin, broad and easy like it had been once upon a time, and he fell to his knees beside Fíli and reached out to help with the leash. “I can’t believe it’s really you!”

“I can’t believe it’s you!” Quick fingers and Fíli was free, though he didn’t let go of Gracie’s leash immediately. Instead he reached out and caught Kíli’s hand, tying the leash expertly around the younger man’s wrist. “I was hoping I’d find you when I moved here, but I didn’t think it’d be as easy as getting knocked over by your dog!”

“You…hoped you’d find me?”

Fíli nodded, shifting a bit but not bothering to stand. “Yeah. It’s….a big part of why I moved out here. I knew you were here a couple of years ago, so I thought I’d come out and look for you.” His eyes softened, and his smile as well. “I’ve missed you.” 

“It’s been….what? Seven years?”

“Yes,” Fíli agreed, and there was a deep warmth in his voice that shot straight through to Kíli’s fingers and toes. “And I’ve missed you every bit of it.”

Kíli may have blushed, just a little, as they sat there in the grass, staring at each other like a pair of complete and utter fools, Fíli’s hand still wrapped around his wrist. 

“I’m sorry Gracie took you down,” Kíli offered after a long moment that was much less awkward that it should have been.

“Oh, George certainly helped.” Fíli glanced over at the two dogs, who were sniffing each other over with exaggerated care. “He’s always had a soft spot for the ladies. Don’t worry, he’s a gentleman – thanks to modern veterinary medicine.” He looked back at Kíli, finally letting go of Kíli’s wrist and hissing a bit.

“Are you all right?” Kíli demanded, reaching out just like he would have when they were kids, and utterly comfortable with each other. 

“Yes, just scraped it up a bit.” Fíli frowned down at his palm, which was grass-stained and red from his landing. “Nothing to worry about. A kiss or two and it’ll be 100%,” he said, which was a line Fíli’s father and used innumerable times in their childhood. 

Kíli, completely on instinct, blurted, “I could do that for you!”

Fíli blinked. 

And then-

He smiled.

A slow, thoughtful, inviting smile such as Kíli had never seen before. 

Warmth spread in Kíli’s stomach.

“Could you?” Fíli asked, his voice oddly careful but his expression daring. “I’d appreciate it.”

Kíli took a slow breath. This was insane. He couldn’t just offer to kiss someone after seven years, couldn’t flirt with his own (step)brother, hadn’t felt this kind of connection to another man in-well, ever-

Fíli watched him, letting him decide, just like he always had, the overprotective ass.

Kíli smiled, and reached out to cradle the hand in his-

Only to be cut off by the long, helpful, warm slurp of a dog’s tongue.

“Ugh!” both men cried in unison, but George and Grace only beamed and completed a second co-kiss of the injured area, imbuing it with all their doggy magic. 

Fíli looked at his now-damp wrist and then at Kíli. “I’ll take a raincheck on that kiss,” he said.

Kíli grinned, utterly, ridiculously happy. “Make sure you do,” he answered, just before both dogs wiggled all over the pair of them in utter joy.


	21. Kiss Twenty-One

This is a gift for ThornyHedge here on Ao3. I hope you see it!  
Written by DragonsQuill, from the universe of Your Heart Pounding, and inspired by gorgeous art by Linane  
[King Without a Crown](http://linane-art.tumblr.com/post/123305952961/king-without-a-crown-fullsize-aka-the-return-of)

\-----

In the years since Kíli became King of Erebor – as his brother insisted, saying that he would never be Consort, but instead stand at Fíli’s side as king – he and Fíli had carefully divided the responsibilities of running a kingdom between them. Given how busy they were every second of every day, Kíli didn’t care to imagine what it was like for his king-ancestors, running Erebor on their own. 

As one year trickled into another, they made adjustments as needed, reassigning this or that task to whomever it suited best. Others were set in stone: from the beginning, Fíli dealt best with the returning nobles, especially as far as charming them into accepting the Company as new noble families; Kíli, meanwhile, was the official ambassador to the elves. 

There was one duty, however, that Kíli held paramount above all others:

Taking care of his brother was Kíli’s job, king or consort. 

Admittedly, Fíli was a responsible dwarf who had wrestled his way back from death and survived the machinations of Durin himself, but he wasn’t perfect. Fíli had a tendency to work himself to exhaustion – or he would, if he didn’t have Kíli to stop him. 

It was Kíli who kidnaped the king on a semi-regular basis, whisking him off for a ride or a few days camping, just the two of them.

He’d done just that this morning, after five days of negotiations with the Men of Rohan for ponies finally ground to a successful close. Kíli had dragged his brother out of bed, bundled him up in his warmest clothes, filled him with a hot breakfast, and ushered him to the stables. Fíli had protested a few times, but he knew the score: Kíli was unstoppable where Fíli’s health was concerned.

It was noon now, and snow had begun to gently fall as they rode their favorite royal ponies through the forest. Winter was well set-in; well enough that sleeping under the stars didn’t hold any appeal. But this did: riding together through the crystalline quiet, miles away from bellowing dwarves and dismissive men, the air a snap of cold and soft snow fluttering from the sky.

Kíli looked over at his brother and Fíli, always watchful, met his eyes and smiled.

Kíli’s heart thumped pleasantly in his chest, and he couldn’t keep the truth to himself. “You’re beautiful,” he said, because Fíli was. The concern etched into his brow was gone, his mouth was relaxed; the soft fur that lined his hood suited him better than any crown.

Kili’s King of Erebor. 

Fíli chuckled, and smiled, dimples deepening and lines crinkling at the corner of his eyes. Laugh lines, Balin called them, and Kíli adored seeing them every time they appeared. “So are you,” he said, reaching out one gloved hand. Kíli gently nudged his pony closer, and she moved easily – their royal steeds were used to riding close together.

He reached out, slipping his gloved fingers into Fíli’s, and his brother tugged him just that little bit closer until they could lean forward and kiss – cold and tasting of snowflakes and adoration.

“Thank you for saving me again,” Fíli said quietly, his eyes warm and happy.

Kíli’s grin turned a bit bashful. “Thank you for being here,” he said, and there were so many layers, memories on memories that lay between them-

Fíli tugged him close, fingers tightening, and kissed him again.

Snow glittered in the sun, dancing around the Kings of Erebor as they reminded each other, as they did each day, of the depths of love that lay between them.


	22. Kiss Twenty Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Msilverstar :)

Fili sometimes tries to discern how his new heartbeat might be different.

He thinks he can sense it now, fingers pressed against his ruined chest or the side of his neck, feeling the little flutter pulse through him, giving him life. It isn’t much, just a tiny bit out of synch with each other, making him feel short of breath sometimes, or languid at others.

It’s like carrying Kili’s heart in his chest, in place of his own.

Now, when he no longer lashes out in fear-driven anger, he understands the true value of Kili’s gift: thoughts, emotions, consciousness, a soul.

Still here.

Still his.

He hasn’t been afraid of death for a very long time, but he’s grateful for the life he was given, oh so incredibly grateful.

 

\---

 

If anyone ever asked Kili what it was like loving Fili, the closest thing he could compare it to would be magic.

It’s like he’s captured the sun and bound it into a jewel.

And Kili basks and basks and basks; he looks, he feels, he tries to comprehend.

Fili sees life. The Witch sees _Everything_. Kili sees even more than that.

 

\---

 

“What does it feel like?”

He looks into the honest blue eyes, then cradles Fili’s palm inside his own. It feels odd to try and simultaneously open and shield, but Fili’s expression turns into enraptured when he begins to feel the Gift flowing through him, when he starts to understand.

“Does it… hurt? When you do it. Did it hurt when you hexed my heart?” he whispers, moving his gaze from their joined hands to Kili’s eyes.

“I… don’t know. It hurt too much _without_ the hex in place.”

 

\---

 

It isn’t unusual for Kili’s hands to wake up before the rest of him and for a time Fili allows himself to be taken hostage, to soak up the care and the sleepy affection.

It’s perverse, in a sense. The same limitless Power that used to tear him apart is now wrapped around him comforting and familiar.

He thought he would care more than he does.

Instead he pushes and rolls Kili flat onto his back so he can press little kisses to Kili’s skin like seals, murmur soft spells into his ears and enchant him all for himself.

 

\---

 

Their kisses are different nowadays. Not least of all because more often than not Fili is the one to initiate them.

For a young prince, who has never had the chance to choose for himself until now, they hold the same magical quality as the curse that protects his heart.

He has been known to sneak up on his beloved Witch, tackle him right into the fresh hay that Kili is trying to stack into a neat little pile and kiss him until they’re both breathless and laughing.

He licks into the hot, wet mouth, nips at the curving, swelling lips and moans his pleasure at the soul carefully wrapped around his own.

“Do you feel any different?” Kili asks, but spoils the dramatic effect with a little giggle towards the end of the sentence.

“I do,” Fili sighs contentedly and then adds, quite seriously, something that that has only just occurred to him: “I feel like _myself_ again.”

He can feel Kili’s grin where he’s mouthing at his Monster’s neck when he says, “must be true love.”

“Must be,” Fili agrees and feverently believes in magic.

 

\---


	23. Kiss Twenty Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Gosia Mahoney :)
> 
> Disclaimer: I know nada about how physics works ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
>  
> 
> **There is a song that goes with this ficlet. You can find it[here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPzUNwn-t7o)**

WARNING: PROXIMITY ALERT. WARNING: PROXIMITY ALERT.

It’s a battle to open his eyes, using muscles which haven’t had to contract in decades.

INJECTING WAKE UP COCTAIL

Fili groans as the needles stab him in the arms and force the chemicals into his body. He hates this part.

WARNING: PROXIMITY ALERT.

Gandalf. Why they have chosen the voice of an old, posh-sounding man, Fili will never know. The AI is good, as far as its protocols go, clever with the exabytes of data that have been pumped into it over the centuries. But it does have an annoying habit of not telling them about the dangers they’re about to encounter and staying uselessly silent as they try to deal with them.

“Time and date,” he croaks, feeling the intelligent oxygen particles kick-start the blood flow properly, fuelling his brain again.

4:23, 27th OF SEPTEMBER 2339.

24 years. Early.

On the outside of his plexi-glass pod, right in front of his eyes someone put a sticky note. “I miss you,” it says. Below there’s another one with a caption “Sweet dreams.”

WARNING: PROXIMITY ALERT.

“Tell me.”

ASTEROID CLUSTER, CLASS B-35. 4 MAJOR OBJECTS IDENTIFIED. DEBRIS FIELD 1.5 SECTORS. CHAOTIC MOVEMENT VECTORS. IN LINE WITH IDENTIFICATION PROTOCOLS, THE DATABASE NAME ASSIGNED IS “THE TROLLS”. RECCOMEND MANUAL PILOTING OVERRIDE AND IMMEDIATE EVASIVE MANOUVERS.

“How immediate?”

… BEST ESTIMATE: 3 MINUTES, 19 SECONDS TO IMPACT.

“Ffffuck!” he scrambles off the edge of the pod and swears again when his legs fold under him like spaghetti. Even if he was to run, it would take him about 2 and a half minutes from the hibernation chambers to the nearest piloting console.

“Gravity: 25%. You could have told me sooner!”

GRAVITY ADJUSTMENT COMPLETE.

Better. He half – stumbles, half – launches himself towards the bay door. “Initiate pilot and navigation override. Authorisation code, uh…” he shakes his head, making the golden strands float around him like a halo, “BXT 392 711 F.”

STATE YOUR NAME.

“Fili Durin. Project peripheral images onto the walls in front of me as I go. I need to see.”

VOICE RECOGNITION: POSITIVE. FILI, MY LAD!

“Way too cheerful,” Fili mutters. He can see why the AI felt the asteroids needed manual approach. One of them… looks like an angry fireball, mini explosions boiling inside it, making it ricochet all over the place. It will be a question of nothing but a gut feeling.

TIME TO IMPACT – 10

Fili falls through the secondary bridge door just in time to see a latest explosion propel the asteroid to spin on its own axis like a giant, flaming snitch.

9 –

“Give me the steering wheel!”

8 – LAUNCHING MANUAL STEERING PANEL.

There is no element of piloting involved when he hits the console at full speed and yanks the joystick towards his chest to stop himself sliding right under it as much as anything else. “Auxiliary – OW!! Auxiliary engines full thrust!”

There’s a sickening sound of metal scraping against rock, but it can’t be the flaming one or else there’d be explosions. “Sorry, uncle,” Fili murmurs, cringing.

SHIELDS HOLDING AT 70%. PHYSICAL DAMAGE TO DECS 22, 23 AND 27. MINOR DAMAGE TO –

“Later!” He grunts, using the console edge and his seat to crawl back out. “Gravity: 70%”.

It feels like a kick to the gut and Fili snarls, clinging to the armrest to haul himself the rest of the way.

GRAVITY ADJUSTMENT COMPLETE.

“Oh, I noticed.”

When he finally pushes the hair out of his face, it becomes clear that they’re not out of the woods yet. He’s managed to bump one of the non-flaming asteroids into the fireball one, the physical impact starting some new deadly reaction within its core. Now it’s _vibrating_ on all screens in front of him, slowly changing colour as it heats up even hotter, consuming the gases within the rock.

If it blows up just behind them, the engines and most of the ship will have had it.

“Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” Fili huffs, pushing the ship forwards, right into the debris field, despite knowing that they won’t be able to get very far, and they will likely burn out their shields doing so without plotting a proper course to minimalize the impact.

“Gandalf! I need a –“

He doesn’t get to finish because from behind a nearby moon a star appears, bright and blinding in its brilliance, making Fili squint. “Screens!”

DIMMING FIELD ACTIVATED. PLEASE REPEAT THE OTHER COMMAND.

He blinks, fighting the sharp stab of pain to his head, then freezes when his eyes land once again on the Trolls. Except it’s more like a single Troll right now; no more flaming inferno and all 4 asteroids are now welded firmly together into a single, solid rock.

“Gandalf? Please explain the space tetris before me.”

IT WOULD APPEAR THAT ONE OF THE ASTEROIDS WAS RUNNING A SPONTANEOUS COLD FUSION REACTION. ONCE BOMBARDED BY THE SOLAR RADIATION WHEN THE STAR CAME INTO ORBIT, THE CONDITIONS BECAME TOO HOT, CAUSING THE REACTION TO COLLAPSE AND SHRINK THE EXPANDING MATTER AROUND IT RAPIDLY, THUS ATTRACTING OTHER SOLID PARTICLES AROUND IT.

“Right.” He sighs, and sinks into the soft leather of his seat, only now realising that he’s not wearing any clothes. Of course he isn’t; there wasn’t the time when the AI woke him. He puts his feet up on top of the console and makes himself comfortable, scratching his belly lazily.

“Plot me a course through this junk and let’s get out of here before something else decides to have a reaction.”

 

\---

 

It’s odd to think that everything that’s happening to them now is directly connected to the things that Fili learned at school all those years ago.

It all starts with a single gene.

Towards the middle of the 21st century someone figures out that this one mysterious section of it is distinctly different for some people. For the next 20 years this fact remains one of science’s sweet mysteries, until one day someone else has a bright idea to start recording who has the odd gene.

A good number of people, as it turns out – 18% of the population to be exact. In the world almost completely digitalised, it’s not difficult for statisticians to start drawing conclusions.

Although there’s nothing noticeably different about them, the people with the odd gene are on average a little bit shorter, boast better immune system and longer lifespans. They see better in the dark and are slightly stronger.

 _Another_ gene with a variation is discovered mere 3 years after the genetic makeup becomes one of the mandatory records forming a part of person’s ID.

This one is completely different, and occurs in people on average slightly taller, with fine bone structure, better eyesight overall and even longer lifespans. They prefer academia, literature, music and arts, though once again, the differences are so miniscule that they’re indistinguishable from the next person.

‘Elvans’ and ‘dwarvans’ are not politically correct terms, but they stick all the same.

As these discoveries coincide with a century of Greater Space Exploration, it seems natural to search for gene’s origins outside of the Earth, but it’s another 100 years before there’s a conclusive proof that at some point during the planet’s early history, the native, human DNA acquired an element of _something else_.

Something that came from the stars.

Just _which_ stars is a question that takes another 40 years to answer.

There are several candidate planets for the Elvan home worlds: Rivendell, Lindon, Lorien, Mirkwood. All of them supported life once, some still do – according to samples brought back by the probes.

By then Earth is overpopulated to a breaking point, so it’s not surprising that movements like “Earth for Humans” gain support quickly.

Not that anyone feels any less human, regardless, or perhaps in line with what the science says: the overall impact of the rogue gene fragment on person’s physical or mental attributes is smaller than that of their eye-colour. These are completely artificial distinctions, created by those who want to see them.

And yet, there is no denying of the impact they have on society.

The elvans are the first ones to leave. Pooling resources and ideas, already heavily involved in private and public space programmes. They leave in small groups, one ship at a time, to explore life in another world.

After that, the Dwarvan departure seems to be only a matter of time.

 

\---

 

“Tell me who woke up since my last time, how long for and what they were up to.”

COMMANDER THORIN DURIN. 2 TIMES. 47 DAYS IN TOTAL, 15 AND 32 DAYS RESPECTIVELY. STUDY OF SHIP’S LOGS, MINOR COURSE CORRECTIONS, LIGHT SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTIC, PODS DIAGNOSTIC. 3 DATABASE ENQUIRIES, 2 BREADCRUMBS FIRED, PERSONAL ACTIVITIES.

Fili stabs his luke-warm spaghetti hoops and chews thoughtfully for a moment, not really registering the taste. As always, the empty ship is a challenge to adjust to, after the constant noise and activity of Earth he still remembers.

MECHANIC BOFUR KERFUR. 1 TIME. 6 DAYS IN TOTAL. COMPLETE SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTIC. COMPLETE ENGINES DIAGNOSTIC, MINOR ENERGY RE-ROUTING, PODS DIAGNOSTIC, PERSONAL ACTIVITIES.

Fili nods. Bofur would be one of the people on the mandatory 25 years checks.

MEDIC OIN BOYSEN. 1 TIME. 17 DAYS IN TOTAL. STUDY OF MEDICAL RECORDS, ONE IN-POD SURGERY, 2 INNOCULATIONS, 23 DATABASE ENQUIRIES, 4 MEDICAL CASE STUDIES, PODS DIAGNOSTIC, PERSONAL ACTIVITIES.

“Who had the surgery?”

SPECIALIST BOMBUR.

“Was it serious?”

LOCALISED CRYSTALISATION IN LEFT KIDNEY.

“Alright, carry on.”

SECOND PILOT KILI DURIN.

“Pause.” Fili freezes with his plate tipped precariously over the organic waste disposal unit. He closes his eyes and exhales slowly.

_Kili was awake._

“Continue.”

1 TIME. 9 DAYS IN TOTAL.

_Kili was awake for 9 whole days! Did he watch Fili sleep? Of course he did._

STUDY OF SHIP’S LOGS, MINOR COURSE CORRECTIONS, LIGHT SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTIC, PODS DIAGNOSTIC. 51 DATABASE ENQUIRIES, PERSONAL ACTIVITIES.

Fili grins. That sounds about right. Kili gets bored easily and having no-one else for company, is sure to bombard the AI with queries. Fili likes to imagine that to Gandalf Kili is the problem child of the crew, the AI surely heaving the metaphorical sigh of relief each time Kili goes to sleep again.

“Re-play all 51 enquiries from second pilot, complete with responses,” he orders, grabbing the data pad with ship’s logs and making himself comfortable on top of the seats in the common room.

 

\---

 

Fili remembers their life in the Blue Mountains.

A place, which up until recently they called home, where what’s in your genes matters a lot less than whether you can pilot a jet-freight or not.

As a part of the Transantarctic mountain range, Blue Mountains are revealed for the first time when the glaciers are harvested for a fresh water supply. The landscape tends to be bleak, except for the short summer months when the seeds thousands and millions years old germinate in the uncovered soil once more, resulting in spectacular, primordial meadows.

But it’s not so much what is on the ground, as what hides beneath it, that attracts people here. Virtually all of the Earth’s last remaining deposits of oil and gas stretch under the mountains, carefully contracted for and expected in steady supply, on time, every time.

Compared to the rest of the world, Blue Mountains are a place of peace and rugged beauty. Because of its rocky, unstable terrain and soil unsuitable for conventional excavation, there are no skyscrapers here, hanging cities or underground complexes. There are only domes – basic, well –insulated, easy to move around as required, although even those are in high demand nowadays, when a square foot of soil is worth on average 10 years’ wages.

Sure, like everywhere else, the goods in the Blue Mountains come in three prices: elvan, dwarvan and human, and the same applies to wages, but with the community overwhelmingly dwarvan, it hardly seems to matter.

They have made a home here; they’ve built a new life for themselves, a life of peace, and plenty.

So it’s no surprise that even when the candidate planet for the dwarvan home world is announced, Blue Moutains carry on with their hustle and bustle as normal.

They call it Erebor - there’s just the one so far, in a galaxy hundreds of millions of light years away. With the current technological advancement, given a couple of years and outrageous figures of investment, it might just about be possible to send some colonists up there.

If one could find someone insane enough to try it, that is – even with all the best quantum engines in existence, the journey would take centuries.

 

\---

 

“ETA.”

73 YEARS, 88 DAYS, 6 HOURS AND 42 MINUTES. PROBABILITY FACTOR –

“Don’t wanna know.” Fili scratches at his beard, eyeing the panel in front of him. “So that’s what? Two more sleeps? Or should we make it three?”

Thorin doesn’t know that Fili hacked his crio module to wake up once every 25 years, regardless of the calls AI makes every now and then when it needs someone’s input or skillset. Or perhaps he does know if, like Fili, he’s been monitoring the Quest’s activity during his own sleeps. It’s a risk every time he does it – not everyone makes it. The research suggests that each awakening is like aging mentally 2 years, as the brain struggles to catch up on and reconcile decades of subconsciousness and dreams.

Which is why, no matter how much Fili wants to, he doesn’t involve his brother in his little scheme.

They started with over 70 colonists; now they’re down to 26. It turns out that even if the ship’s systems have more or less passed the test of time, the med-tech needed a couple more years before they set off.

“Do you envisage any points in our remaining journey when you’re likely to need me or Kili?

I’M SORRY, I’M NOT ABLE TO GIVE ACCURATE RESPONSE AT THIS TIME.

“Alright, alright,” finally satisfied that there are no signs of leakage or nano-chip failure, Fili crawls out from under Kili’s pod. It’s the last one, because he knows that if he started with his brother, nobody else would get checked. “We’ll make it two. That way it will seem to go quicker.”

If someone asked Fili why he was doing it, he wouldn’t be able to give an accurate response either.

After his very first sleep – 63 years before Gandalf decided he needed Fili – he nearly didn’t wake up at all. It was like a nightmare that somehow held him in its grip as he dropped in and out of consciousness, fighting some invisible enemies. Even when Oin, hastily defrosted to try and save his life, shot him full psycho-stimulants, Fili remained firmly lost in his own head.

He finally reacted to the stimulus of pain, zapped with the good, old-fashioned electricity, blue eyes flying open, gasp tearing out of his lungs.

They worked through it afterwards, spending a few weeks building up Fili’s defences and coping mechanisms, but one thing became clear: he needed to keep an eye on his brother.

It kept him alive.

He considers for a moment, then writes, “I wish you could share my dreams with me,” on the little pink sticky note, planting it firmly on the side of the visor of Kili’s pod.

He sighs, resting his cheek on the cool surface of the plexi glass, his eyes following familiar lines of Kili’s face.

His brother always looks so stern when he sleeps.

“I’m forgetting what your skin feels like. How you move, some stupid music blearing out from speakers, and you dancing,” he whispers, fingertips some 20 centimetres above the strand of hair he wants to brush aside. “It must be over…” Fili ponders for a moment, calculating in his head, even though he could ask the AI “- 250 years since I last touched you.”

There’s nothing but silence, from Kili, across the hibernation deck, the ship, the entire goddamn galaxy probably.

“At least that last kiss was a damn good one,” he smiles, remembering Thorin’s outraged expression when, mostly out of their clothes for the hibernation by that point, Kili ran up to him and snogged the living daylights out of Fili.

He curls up a little, one arm wrapping around the pod in lieu of warm shoulders and overly long limbs.

Some would argue whether it’s a kiss at all, when Fili presses his lips to the cool plexi-glass like he’s done a dozen times before. There’s no warmth, no breath, no pleased little noise he’s so used to. But in Fili’s head it’s been about a month and a half in total and they’ve never been apart this long before, so the kisses just are as crucial to Fili’s survival as oxygen or radiation filters.

“I love you, baby. I’ll be right here. I’ll always be here with you.”

 

\---

 

They can fly pretty much anything that is capable of flight.

Fili is the first one to catch the bug and there are records of him barely 5, sitting in his dad’s lap, piloting a small cruiser with an expression of furious focus on his face. Of course, as soon as Kili is able to understand what it was that Fili is doing, he wants to do it too.

By the time they’re in high school the competition is in full swing, both of them getting a licence after a licence, each trying to out-do the other performing increasingly more stupid stunts, which should cost them their life.

Somehow, in that weird, incomprehensible way the universe has, neither of them dies. It does though turn them into one pair of brilliant pilots.

They start kissing and groping in a natural extension of the adrenaline and laughter buzzing in their veins each time they land. But then they don’t stop or even pause, after the door closes and they’re left alone.

Instead they dive head first into that crazy love they have for each other, push, argue, make love and hold on, perfectly content with what they’re doing.

“They practically revolve around each other. Who else were they going to fall in love with?” their mother often says.

Not everyone is as understanding as Dis, but even after some parts of their family cut all ties, it doesn’t stop them loving the simple life they’ve made for themselves.

On some level it’s a tragedy that the only things they’re flying nowadays is the bulky and highly explosive cargo over the bleak Antarctic landscape.

But it’s also the reason why Thorin goes to all the trouble of meeting them face to face after close to a decade with no contact.

“We’re going to claim Erebor as our own, climb out of this overexploited, petty little planet. And we’re going to make a new home there. We have a ship, the Quest – it’s nothing fancy, but it does need someone flying it. I’m working on compiling the list of colonists right now.”

They listen to him with hard, wary eyes and they don’t give their response immediately.

“We want you to admit that you were wrong. About Fili and me. To take the time to understand us. And we want - _I_ want you to support us. Truly and without questioning our choices.”

“And I want to know everything you know about the risks, safety of that ship and every scrap of information about that planet that we have. Kili wants to know if there might be trees. And if we’ll be allowed to live out our lives how we want to, after the dust has settled.”

In the end they agree to go because they want something better for each other than just _getting by_ ; it’s a new beginning and a chance at life, together, that they couldn’t dream of otherwise.

They go because they love each other.

 

\---

 

“Play the song.”

Fili always tries to stretch thoroughly before he goes to sleep, as if the little exercise could somehow be of benefit to him when he wakes up again decades later.

 _First time we meet again_  
_So much we’ve been through_  
 _I’m amazed, I’m amazed._

What Fili means by ‘the song’ is by now hard-coded into AI’s protocols. Kili would laugh and call it his ‘lullaby’, though he’d also look him in the eye and perhaps pull him into a hug; it was Kili’s favourite before it was Fili’s.

In either case, Kili would understand.

He reaches for the zip of his suit and slowly peels it off his body, the AI automatically raising the deck’s temperature to make it a bit more comfortable.

Falling asleep is the nice part, at least compared to waking up. The gas inside the pod makes him drop naturally into deep slumber and dream for a little while, before the needles get started on sucking the life back out of him and the crio-freeze initiates.

He counts himself back from 10 just like Oin taught him, each number a pulse of a memory of something Kili said or did before they left on this insane voyage. He falls into things that bring him comfort and dreams in quiet little hopes for the life yet to come.

GOODNIGHT, FILI.

 

\---

 

“Mnnnn.”

“Hey, sleepyhead.”

“It’s the time to be asleep. Get in with me or leave me to my dreams.”

“Alright. Shove over.”

He’s grumpy, but they both know that he likes knowing as soon as Kili is back.

“Blanket too.”

“Right, sorry. Better?”

He presses his nose into Kili’s shoulder and draws a pleased, deep breath. Kili’s feet are like ice of course, so he helpfully kicks their gel heating pad towards him.

“Better.”

“You look tired.”

“There was a fire so they woke me up once already.”

“Poor Fee,” Kili’s fingers carding through his hair makes Fili want to moan in quiet pleasure. “Anything serious?”

“S’sorted.”

“You look so content like this, you know. All pliant, comfortable and warm. Go back to sleep, Fee. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

He curls up closer and sighs when Kili wraps an arm around his waist and back. He wants to ask – _How was your run? Did you have any troubles?_ but instead for some reason what his mind actually settles on is:

“Are you real? Are you actually here?”

Kili snorts. “Of course.”

And if there was any doubt, their kiss is real enough.

 

\---

 

 _First time we meet again_  
_So much we’ve been through_  
_I’m amazed, I’m amazed._

 _Your hair falls right in place_  
_You smile and whisper_  
_How you've been, how you've been._

 _I know the world goes round, round, round_  
_We fall apart, we fall to the ground._  
_I know the world goes round, round, round_  
_Look at my eyes, together we'll rise, together we'll rise._

 _I want you to know_  
_There'll be a place_  
_Right in my heart_  
_Right in the head_  
_I want you to know_

 _You lay on my chest, once again._  
_Is this a dream or_  
_Am I awake? I'm awake!_

 _The touch of my hand, on your face_  
_The taste of your lips_  
_I'm amazed, I'm amazed!_

 _I know the world goes round, round, round_  
_We fall apart, we fall to the ground._  
_I know the world goes round, round, round_  
_Look at my eyes, together we'll rise, together we'll rise._

 _I want you to know_  
_There'll be a place_  
_Right in my heart_  
_Right in the head_  
_I want you to know_

\---


	24. Kiss Twenty Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Shiniami714 :)

Kili wouldn’t have been able to sleep even if he drank all of Oin’s sleeping draughts in one go.

The battle was tomorrow. Come dawn his uncle and brother would try to do their utmost to kill each other. Nausea twisted in his stomach and Kili thought he might be sick again, but he swallowed thickly instead, fighting to keep it down.

 _How did it come to this,_ he asked himself for the hundredth time and lost himself in thought once again. He agonised over whether he might have noticed, whether he’d been blind to the rising tensions within his own family, or the way Fili’s spine kept going more and more stiff.

He couldn’t tell.

Fili rebelled during their third year in the Mountain.

It was mostly about the gold – thrice cursed metal – Fili felt that keeping their wealth accumulated as it had been for centuries was a mistake and would only bring another calamity on them sooner or later. He thought that it should be broken apart and transported away for safe keeping, traded and used to kick-start commerce once again and outright _given_ away to the people they promised a share.

He also disagreed with the way the Kingdom was ran, how they _still_ , years later, were technically at war with the elves and people of Laketown, he mourned the starvation that hit the Mountain at odds with the whole world, it seemed.

Many agreed. Dangerously many.

There was something about Fili – intelligence combined with a natural talent for diplomacy – that made him credible to people.

He’d taken great many from the mountain itself and more joined him when he rode up the caravan trails and spoke with the settlers. He’d risked his life meeting with people of Laketown to forge an alliance with Bard, but somehow came out of it unscathed. Even the elves – Kili was perhaps the only one who truly understood how much it must have cost him to allow himself to be captured in Mirkwood so he could gain an audience with king Thranduil; a very different audience this time. And although elves, being elves, haven’t committed to anything much, he did walk out of there with several contingents of excellent archers.

It was said that his armies wouldn’t have been enough to take the Blue Mountains, but here, in Erebor, they were a real challenge. He had a shot, a fighting chance, and that meant that Thorin took him seriously.

Kili grabbed a heavy crystal-cut tumbler and poured himself a glass of water, which he then downed in one go.

It had all spun horribly out of Kili’s control.

He’d tried to mediate, of course he did. But Thorin was dismissive and arrogant in his Mountain, and Fili – Fili _believed_ and he’d not let himself be anything less than true to his beliefs.

He jumped at an unfamiliar sound and stared, mouth agape as what had previously been a perfectly normal wall of his private quarters now moved aside with a heavy grunt. Next second he had a knife in his hand and was pinning the would-be attacker to the wall.

“Brother,” Fili murmured in that low, warm voice of his and looked him fearlessly in the eye, corners of his mouth twitching as he completely disregarded the blade at his neck.

“Fili!!” Kili hissed, snatching the knife away and staring incredulously at the most wanted dwarf under the Mountain. “Are you _mad_?! Have you got any idea what will happen if the guards find you?!”

“Shhhh… They won’t unless you keep making a racket like that,” he whispered, pushing away from the wall to throw a sweeping glance at Kili’s apartments. He had a proper shit-eating grin on his face when he said, “excellent. I wasn’t sure if Thorin had moved you and even if he hadn’t there was a good chance that I’d end up in the royal laundry. Thank Mahal I inherited mum’s sense of direction and not Thorin’s.”

“I’m serious! You can’t be here, especially not _now_!!” Kili was torn between pulling him into a desperate hug and pushing him back out into the passage he came from.

“You’re right.”

“I am?”

“Totally,” Fili nodded, grabbed Kili’s wrist and pulled him into the darkness of the hidden corridor.

 

\---

 

For a moment Kili thought he’d won. Just once, Fili listened to him.

And then they emerged, covered in cobwebs and Mahal knows what else, right on the very tip of the Lonely Mountain.

“We can’t stay here! We’re out in the open, this is _worse_!” Kili shrieked, then slapped his hand over his mouth, looking nervously around them.

“Relax, little brother. Dwarves like looking down at others, but they do not like looking _up_ at those above them,” he tilted his head a little. “I suppose that might be a good metaphor for why nobody saw the dragon coming.”

Kili stared at him, all calm, slightly arrogant and _entirely_ Fili-like where he made himself comfortable on a low outcrop. As if there wasn’t any civil war going on, and they’d snuck out of their home in the Blue Mountains to look at the stars.

Kili felt like laughing hysterically.

“I never did understand why we didn’t have sentries at the top,” Fili mused, turning away to take a good look at the Erebor armies sprawling in a loose ring around the Mountain.

“Why are you here, Fili? Why risk so much?”

Their eyes met once again and Kili told himself to stop with the quiet admiration and a hazy array of other feelings swelling in his chest and focus instead on making sure that Fili didn’t get killed. For a few more hours at least.

“Because I wanted to give you a chance to come with me,” Fili told him simply. “Not to fight. Just – I want you away from all that. You’re right in the heart of this conflict and whichever side wins – You’re going to get hurt, Kili.”

Kili didn’t have an answer. Not straight away, not to something this important. He knew what Fili was asking of him really, or he thought he did, but he needed to _hear_ -

He sat down heavily on the outcrop next to Fili, mind spinning. His brother didn’t push; instead he simply wrapped one arm around Kili’s shoulders like when they were younger and returned to studying the troops below.

They sat like that, in companionable silence for a while, until –

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Fili whispered, entirely too close and disturbingly _not close enough_. “Not knowing if you’re safe, I mean. You’re my one weakness, Kili. If he realises that, if he tries to use you against me…”

“He won’t. He doesn’t know.”

“He knows you’re my little brother, and that I’d die for you. It could be enough.”

“I won’t _let_ him use me. But Fili… I can’t come with you. Mother’s here. Somebody needs to look after her, and all those other people who don’t want to be a part of this war. I have responsibilities. _You’re_ the one who taught me that.”

Excuses, the lot. Kili bit his lip until he tasted blood.

In his mind one thought thrashed around like a trapped fly: _I’m not ready. I’m not ready for any of this. I cannot choose._

Fili gave him a sad smile and nodded.

“Must you really fight?!” the words spilled out of Kili instead. “You’ve always said that if you take part in a battle you’ve lost already.” He watched the blue eyes grow unfocussed, as Fili considered his response.

“All my life I’ve been told that it was my sacred duty to protect my people –“ _to protect you_ , he didn’t say. “I’ve been to Gondor, Kili, I’ve looked at the scrolls. Smaug was actually one of the smallest known dragons, not to mention the ones we don’t know about. More will come, sooner or later, I’m certain of it. Uncle’s greed will destroy this new fledgling kingdom, his kin, everything we’ve fought for so hard, unless I can stop him. I won’t let him, Kili; I _can’t_.”

Now it was Kili’s turn to nod. “What will you do if you win?” he asked for something to fill the burning silence between them.

“Take him to the elven healers, see if they can help. They call it the gold sickness. They think that with time, patience and avoidance of wealth it can be cured.”

“Do you know what he’ll do if he wins?”

Fili arched an eyebrow.

“He’s promised to behead you.”

“Well then,” Kili watched as the corners of Fili’s lips rose once more, inducing those damnable dimples. “I guess I’ll have you to make sure that he doesn’t,” he grinned, perfectly at ease with the grim vision of his future.

If Thorin thought that the proclamation would make Fili afraid, less brave somehow, he clearly didn’t know his nephew very well. The only thing Fili was ever afraid of was losing Kili.

 

\---

 

Kili remembered how it all ended: that confident laughter, dreams, plans and the burning desire to protect.

He watched the whole sorry procession roll in straight into Thorin’s golden throne room.

Fili was given a cage all to himself; he looked small and inadequate inside it and Kili silently seethed at the indignity of it all. Like he was livestock being brought for slaughter.

His hair was a mess and it was clear that he’d been injured – his shirt was sticking wetly to his body with stains of red. There was no way to tell if it was serious and it was only with utmost effort that Kili made himself breathe and stay rooted to his spot.

For his part Fili looked around at the crowds, exuding the same sense of quiet dignity he’d always had. He didn’t fight, he didn’t shrink away from their gazes either. He simply stood for all that he was and allowed himself to be witnessed.

Kili felt tears press at the corners of his eyes and burn there like acid.

 

\---

 

“I need your help,” Kili said.

“Sit and get started on the pile over there,” Balin told him, his eyes steady on the scroll he was reading. He didn’t bother questioning Kili about what it was that the prince needed, but then Balin had always been the wisest dwarf Kili knew. “There are a lot of records to review and only three of us to do it.”

“Three?” Kili looked around the archives.

Ori appeared out of the darkness as if summoned. “If you find anything of interest, write it on a piece of paper and tuck it between the pages so it’s easily visible. It goes on the table over there,” he advised before settling down himself with a heavy four-volume encyclopaedia.

Kili bit his lip and reached for a book.

 

\---

 

He was pushed right through the throng of people and Kili thought that the expectation was that they would try to tear him apart for the war he brought to their home.

Nobody touched him. Instead Fili walked under his own power, limping slightly, brushing shoulders with those who were meant to judge him.

One could have said he strutted towards his death, if not for the blood stains he left behind.

 

\---

 

“I need your help,” Kili said.

“I can hardly steal your precious brother, you know,” Nori snickered at him from the half-shadows. “There are more armed guards around him now than Thorin’s treasure halls. You two shits have landed yourselves in a deep one this time.”

“I don’t need you to steal Fili for me. I only need his heart.”

 

\---

 

“It ends now!” Thorin roared, grabbing Fili by his hair and hauling him towards the execution platform raised in the middle.

It was surreal. Kili might have known, but he didn’t think he ever _believed_ it would end like this.

_Whichever side wins – You’re going to get hurt, Kili._

Fili grunted in pain but followed, as best as he could with his hands bound tightly behind his back. He still didn’t look afraid and it was perhaps that, more than Thorin’s booming voice that gave the crowd a pause, that made them quieten down into a morbid sense of expectation.

Something was happening, barely perceptible, yet stirring in the air all the same.

“You are a traitor and a coward!! You betrayed your own people, raised hand against your own _kin_!!” Thorin snarled, throwing Fili down to his knees, before himself, before their people.

 _You are the wronged prince and a king who could have been,_ the crowd heard. _You are the one who would fight your own family to protect us._

Entranced, nobody noticed the little speck of gold fly through the air from the crowd towards the raised dais to the side.

Kili noticed, catching it easily in mid-air.

“Your own greed and arrogance brought you to this! You even conspired with our enemies to achieve your own ends, plotted against Erebor!” Thorin continued his tirade below, infuriated by the lack of reaction from Fili. “You are kin of mine no longer. I denounce you as my heir and nephew. You hear me?! You are no longer your mother’s son, no longer Kili’s brother! You don’t even deserve to be the lowest scum among our people!”

Next to Kili Dis snorted and he noticed her hand turning white around the handle of her heavy battle axe. Fili would _always_ be her son. In that moment he understood that if it came to that, she would choose her son over her brother.

“Have you nothing to say for yourself?!”

Their eyes met, just for a moment, above the enraged, mad king, the throng of dwarves and across the eerie silence.

“I have conspired with no-one. All I’ve done, I’ve done for my people,” Fili’s voice was strong, not at all like it should have been.

 _I stand before you, still, with the same choice I’ve always offered_ , he crowd heard.

 _I love you,_ Kili heard, low and warm, with laughter hiding just around the edges of the words.

Thorin roared once more and hauled Fili towards the execution block.

 _He’s mad_ , the crowd heard.

And pushed.

He was going to behead their king.

Guards grunted under the force of their assault.

Thorin picked the axe.

 

\---

 

“I need your help,” Kili said.

“I already told him ‘no’,” Dwalin told him. “So did everyone else. If anyone kills yer brother it will be yer uncle himself.”

 

\---

 

“You cannot behead him!” It strained his throat, but oh, Kili was heard. “He is _mine_.”

The crowd froze.

Fili watched him with concerned blue eyes.

“A member of the royal family cannot be beheaded, or to be precise, ‘stripped of life’ by another member of said family, or on their orders, on the pain of their own death,” Kili quoted. “By decree of Nain II, 2446.”

“Haven’t you heard me, _boy_? I have denounced him, he no longer _is_ a member of the royal family!” Thorin took three sweeping steps towards the dais.

“No matter,” Kili strolled towards the steps nonchalantly, even as the heart in his chest hammered like Mahal’s own creation. “I told you before: he is mine. You see, Fili and I are to be married.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, he’s –“

“’No longer his mother’s son.’”

Silence. Crowd stunned, hanging on his every word. Fili’s eyes so blue and wide as understanding sank into his heart.

Kili felt a strange sense of calm surround him. He knew what to do; he knew what he was _always_ meant to do.

“I love him. I’ve loved him for as long as I can remember,” he continued. “He came to me, the night before the battle and we have exchanged beads to prove our promise to each other. I could have never married my brother of course, but a stranger -” he met Fili’s eyes purposefully now “- I am free to give my heart to a stranger.”

Kili held the simple braid behind his right ear for all to see, now complete with a familiar little bead, which up until a couple of minutes ago when Nori liberated it, sat innocuously around Fili’s golden strands. Such little things, braids, for what it was they symbolised.

Thorin scoffed. “He holds no bead of yours and in any case, you _have_ no beads to give.”

“Check his pockets. He would have wanted to wear it even in death, but you bound his hands.”

Fili’s face betrayed nothing as Thorin searched him and then stared at the item he found on his prisoner.

Kili’s rune stone, the same one his mother gave him before they set out to reclaim the Mountain, had been carefully cast into a simple clip. It was too big for Fili’s meticulous braids normally framing his face, but it was alright. Fili wore a short, thick braid at the back of his head as well, and it would fit there _perfectly_.

The corners of Fili’s mouth twitched, something like familiar laugh lines creasing around his eyes and Kili was flooded with warmth.

He’d never felt stronger or braver than at that moment.

The King under the Mountain was silent. “Fiancé is hardly –“

Kili moved.

And with him several others moved as well.

“- the same as a husband!”

He jumped over the balustrade surrounding the dais and disappeared in the crowd.

Which, courtesy of Nori’s quiet whispers, tried to part for him as much as possible.

Thorin –

Was pushed aside by a charging Dwalin, until the two of them rolled perilously close to the edge of the execution platform. Fists went flying.

Fili tried to move toward him, but he couldn’t get very far on his knees, and _now_ his ever-present easy calm had been shattered as he watched Kili fight below him, _for him_.

Bofur, or perhaps Bifur, Kili couldn’t see properly, kicked at the back of one of the guard’s knees, making them collapse flat to their back under the weight of their own ceremonial armour.

Kili more or less ran over their breastplate, then half-stumbled, half-jumped up the stairs, scaled the last couple of feet and fell hard to his knees, slamming into Fili.

His brother swayed from the impact but by then Kili was there and he held him, with all his strength, as their lips found each other.

He wasn’t expecting Fili to actively kiss him back, thought perhaps he’d be too stunned, but -

They kissed the only way they could under the circumstances, with desperate need, tasting blood, warmth and each other. It was nothing like they imagined it would be and everything it had to be, everything they ever wanted, until it almost didn’t matter if Fili was saved by it, because they stole this one perfect moment for themselves.

It was all they ever truly wanted.

Someone hauled Kili back by his robes and hair and the last thing he saw before something heavy landed on him were three burly guards dragging Fili away in the opposite direction and nearly crushing him under their weight, as if, tied as he was, he could have somehow assaulted Kili.

“Order!!” Thorin bellowed and Kili noticed that five other guards held Dwalin between them, even as the crowd was close to storming the platform.

“And with that –“ Kili shouted above the tumult –

Snorted at the next words, couldn’t help it, started giggling from the sheer euphoria of having _finally_ kissed Fili, from the insanity of it all and the fact that he dared do such a thing –

“And with that, I have been deflowered!” he announced, a grin almost splitting his face.

The crowd fell silent once more, stunned by the proclamation and Kili’s free, delighted laughter.

“And there shall be no difference to the acts of flesh between those who are betrothed, whether they be gentlest of kisses or acts full of carnal pleasure, that they may both, indeed, only be as one hence forth,” Balin helpfully announced, reading from his scroll.

“Now, uncle. If you don’t abide by the sacred laws of our people, then who will?”

Thorin swore.

 

\---

 

The dungeons they threw Fili into were said to run even deeper than the darkest tunnels of Moria. It took nearly a day to descend that far.

It was said that the darkness took the prisoners first, before they found their own death.

Thorin walked away with his hands clean.

 

\---

 

Kili grunted with the effort of pushing the heavy, nearly-never used section of the wall away.

He silently thanked their Maker for the diligence and paranoia of dwarves which led them to create secret tunnels within the Mountain, even as far back as the deepest dungeons.

He only made it about twenty feet in pitch blackness of the main corridor lit only by his own torch, before –

“In here.”

He stopped in front of a cell with a single occupant.

“Brother,” Fili murmured in that low, warm voice of his and looked up at him, corners of his mouth twitching. “Took you long enough.”

He was meant to slip into easy banter, he really was. He carried everything he’d need to break Fili free, food, water, medical supplies, a fresh change of clothes, he had a plan, he was going to be _cool_ for once, _competent_ in his rescue mission…

Instead what came out was –

“Fili.” Quiet and somewhat pleading.

Fili’s eyes softened and he pushed to his feet coming right to the bars, so they could press their foreheads together. “Hey,” he whispered, his arms folding Kili into an easy hug. “I’m right here, you saved me.”

“I meant every word I said. I love you, Fili.”

“I know. I love you too.”

 

\---

 

_6 months later._

 

The two lone riders were virtually indistinguishable against the rugged line of the trees at the top of the hill, especially as they rode close, their thighs nearly brushing.

“What do you think?” Fili asked.

Kili regarded the sprawling valley below, considered the angles and natural outcrops. “It will do great. Good vantage and the winds are easterly, which will only help our arrows. The best spot for the archers will be a bit to the right, over there. Why didn’t you use this location last time?”

“Because Erebor armies wouldn’t move this far away from the mountain. But this time he’s angry.”

Kili nodded. It hadn’t been easy, turning his back on the dwarf who had been like a father to him. But he wasn’t the same person as the one who once spoke with his brother on top of the Lonely Mountain; he was ready now, and his heart had chosen.

It also helped that Dis was with them this time and that the support for Fili grew three-fold in the few short months. There was hardly anybody left to rally to Erebor’s cause and even Dain Ironfoot refused to get involved this time.

There were no doubts in Kili’s mind, no regrets.

“We are going to win this battle,” Kili told his brother, reaching to take his hand.

“Yes. Yes, we will.”

 

\---


	25. Kiss Twenty Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Chelidona :)

Kili knows love; or he thinks he does.

‘Puppy love’, his mother used to call it. Once, twice, maybe three times in all his life. He wouldn’t say he falls in love easily, but he does get friendly and his emotions sometimes run away from him. He vaguely remembers writing songs for one of them, for that one day when he’d learn the guitar…

He knows love with Fili; the real, head-over-heels, thank-you-for-existing love.

For Fili he wants to be a better person, the sort of person he’s always needed but life has denied him. It’s about so much more, about stepping up, patience, kindness. Kili is a cheerful, independent young man, but none of those things prepare him for how to deal with someone so strong, hurting so badly.

Thankfully, Fili is much better nowadays. It’s been close to a year and every day Kili keeps falling in love all over again with this quiet, funny, confident, caring person slowly finding a place for himself in Kili’s life. He loves the way Fili thinks, the way he looks at other people, loves how he _is_.

It isn’t perfect yet, but it will be.

When Kili asks Fili about Christmas, he doesn’t get the response immediately.

It’s their first Christmas together and Kili wants it to be _perfect_. For Fili, for all those years when he was all alone among glimmering display windows luring him with an empty promise of warmth and some unjustified joy.

But Kili knows better than just to decide for both of them – they will do whatever Fili is comfortable with.

“You’ll want to be with mum,” Fili tells him in the evening. “And I want to be with you. Just… keep it simple. You don’t need to compete with my memories.”

“How about creating some new ones?” Kili whispers, pressing his forehead to Fili’s.

“You already are.”

 

\---

 

It’s a blessing to have the house full once again, Dis decides.

Fili and Kili arrive after 11 at night, rolling out of an autopilot Elecab they must have hired at the station and apologising profusely for being so late. She feeds them sandwiches with chopped up steak and sends them straight to bed when Kili starts yawning and leaning into Fili’s side.

She notes the subtle changes in her son; he’s more centred now, better at listening, but also seems more content. It’s good to see them acting more and more like a couple, at ease with all their little quirks – from holding the door for each other to gently nudging in the right direction.

She doesn’t mean to eavesdrop by her son’s bedroom door, but she’s tying up her hair and happens to pause in the hallway.

Fili and Kili are whispering, which is only partly successful, since they’re both blessed with relatively low voices, made even hoarser by their sleepiness. Then there’s a happy sigh and a low chuckle.

Kili doesn’t chuckle; he laughs openly or giggles.

She’s never heard that sound before, but thinks she could get used to it and her eyes are smiling when she walks into the bathroom.

 

\---

 

By the time Dis eventually makes it down to the kitchen, the boys are up and making themselves useful.

Fili notices her first, giving her a little wave for ‘hello’ and pointing to a chair as if to say that they’ve got everything under control.

“Morning, mum,” now Kili has spotted her too, bounding over in all his usual cheerful kiliness, kissing her cheek and pressing coffee into her hands.

Who is she to argue, when two handsome young men insist on making her breakfast?

They move around each other as if they’ve done it hundreds of times, although Fili is the one paying attention to where Kili is and what he’s doing at any given time. He moves aside as required, except sometimes he stands his ground, allowing Kili to bounce right off him.

“Now chives,” he instructs, nodding as Kili tips his chopping board into the pile of eggs, which Fili is currently scrambling into a meal.

“You want cinnamon in your coffee, Fee?”

“Go on then, but just a little bit.”

“Cinnamon makes everything _better_.”

“So you claim. Where does the pepper live again?”

Kili passes it without looking, reaching the second shelf with ease that both Fili and Dis are secretly envious of.

“Thanks.”

“Is this bacon ready yet?”

“No, it needs to be flipped to the other side. It’s not a pancake Kili, use the thongs.”

“Ah! Pancakes! We should have made some of those. Little fluffy ones.”

“Tomorrow.”

They chatter and banter a little, gradually filling up the breakfast table with food and the empty space of the kitchen with their presence.

She watches a loose strand slip from the messy pony tail into which Fili has thrown his hair this morning, a little tilt of the golden head to avoid it going in his eyes, and how Kili tucks it back behind his ear between taking out one batch of toast and replacing it with another.

Neither comments, but the corners of their eyes crinkle a little with quiet love and that’s proof enough for Dis.

 

\---

 

Kitsunugi is a Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with gold. It treats breakage and repair as a part of the object’s history and character, rather than something to disguise.

Kili is Fili’s golden seam, filling in spaces within him, sealing them and binding the edges into a smooth surface.

“I’m so glad I have you,” Kili whispers into his skin until Fili believes him. Somehow that makes him precious.

He watches his One through the closed French door, inside his childhood home, overly enthusiastically trying to untangle a string of Christmas lights.

It’s not easy; he remembers all those Christmases he spent at home, being loved and spoilt and, like all only-children, the centre of everyone’s attention. He wishes he could take Kili back in time, show him what it was like, try to make him understand. He’d do anything to be able to introduce his One to his parents properly. It’s hard to sink into someone else’s celebrations, to re-create this feeling of inclusion, and _being at home_ regardless of how much Kili and Dis make him feel welcome.

But then he also remembers all those Christmases when there was no home at all, no celebrations and no-one to share it with. A care package – people like putting those together – a better meal in the soup kitchen, served by people for whom he’s the annual ‘pitty cause’, invisible for the remaining 364 days of the year.

Their eyes meet across the glass and hold over a heartbeat, then two.

 _Invite me back in_ , he thinks closing his eyes, for a moment back out in the uncaring streets of the city.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

He smiles a little at the hands wrapping him in a blanket folded in two, prickly stubble against his cheekbone and a pair of overly long arms around his shoulders.

“You’d be warmer hermitting in my room, you know. You hate the cold,” Kili murmurs into their embrace.

“I’m good now, actually.” Kili is warm with a soft glow of happiness and cosiness of his home, and Fili shamelessly tucks himself into that feeling, wrapping the edges of his blanket as much around his One as possible.

The wind whips their hair and edges of their clothes, but it doesn’t matter.

“You’re sure? You know mum won’t mind.”

“I’m sure. Someone has to rescue those Christmas lights, before you turn them into a macramé.”

“But –“

“Decorate now, have a cup of tea in your room later. I saw you had some older copies of National Geographic in boxes.”

“You know you can use my login and browse the entire online archive, right?”

“Your online archive doesn’t come on glossy paper and with a live photographer’s commentary.”

“I should feed that back.”

“You should.”

 

\---

 

It’s half past midnight and they’re making brownies.

Fili has many questions regarding this recent development and most of them begin with the word ‘why’.

“There have been brownies at Christmas since I was seven,” Kili explains. “It was our first Christmas alone – me and mum – and we were feeling rebellious. It’s a tradition now.”

 _Oh_ , Fili thinks, pausing his work to look at his One.

Kili gives him a soft little smile. “It’s okay now. We have you for company.”

Fili has never thought of it this way – that _he_ might be the one saving someone from loneliness.

“Did you always know? You know. That you’d find someone?” he asks, padding closer to slip the bar of chocolate he’s chopped into chunks into Kili’s brownie mix.

“No. But I always hoped I would. I know of people who just assume that they won’t find their One. They make it into their default mode, so they’re not even looking and if they do find someone, well, that’s just a brilliant surprise, I guess.”

Fili nods, watching Kili pour the mix into the baking tray, hiding a little behind the long bangs of his hair.

“I could never do that,” his One continues. “I always felt that I’d need… emotions, my humanity, with all its vulnerability and perseverance to be able to tell when the time came, even if it meant I’d get hurt first. And I was worried that I could lose, well, _me_ before I found my One if I tried to overthink it.”

“And when you met me? Did you know _then_?”

“I did and I didn’t,” Kili laughs. “It’s hard to love someone you don’t know, someone you just met. But when you left, I was more scared than I have ever been. And then when you were shot I thought the world was going to end. It was irrational and so strong, I knew it couldn’t have been anything else.”

“I’m sorry,” Fili murmurs, wrapping his arms around Kili, pulling him close.

“I know. I’ve accepted that apology months ago,” he curls in into Fili’s embrace, always does, being taller, when he’s after comfort.

“I _did_ know. And I didn’t think it was fair to trail with my muddy shoes all over your pristine life. I didn’t think you’d want someone like me.”

“I _know_ ”, Kili repeats, sounding somewhat distressed and Fili wonders why it’s so hard for him to say the _right_ things in moments like these.

“I love you,” he murmurs, hand on Kili’s face to get his attention. “More than you’ll ever know.”

Kili’s eyes, always so expressive and a little bit cat-like, widen in surprise. “You’ve never –“

“I did!”

“No, you _didn’t_!”

The kiss sparks from stubbornness but almost instantly melts into a dialogue, an exchange and a little rivalry in causing soft little appreciative noises. For Fili it’s about intimacy, always is, about letting Kili in and slipping a bit into his soul in turn. The same sensation as when they curl up together in bed and whisper secrets they don’t tell anyone else.

Kili is… he’s hot, pliant and welcoming and, stunned and addicted to this heady rush of _for me_ , Fili can’t help but wonder if the rest of Kili is just as warm. He doesn’t think when he slips his hands under the hem of Kili’s t-shirt, light dusting of hair and soft, sensitive skin, little moan kissed into his mouth. Kili’s? His? Doesn’t matter.

They are so hungry still for this closeness and acceptance.

“I told you a hundred times in my soul. It’s not my fault you weren’t listening,” he whispers into Kili’s wet lips, pushing a bit on his toes to pull them flush.

“I’m listening now. Tell me again.”

“I love you. So much. Not for what you’ve done for me, but because you’re you.”

“I love you too,” the words are whispered into Fili’s neck at this point, making him shiver and want to protect Kili. Against what, he isn’t too sure, but he knows he would, whatever the cost.

“So you know… no more Christmases alone,” he murmurs, eyes closing of their own accord, peace in his soul, contentment in his heart.

“No,” Kili agrees. “No more Christmases alone.”

 

\---

 

They aren’t expecting any more presents.

Instead they’re playing an old-fashioned board game, one that Kili hauled down from the attic after a lengthy exploration with Fili, full of excited chatter and more than one delightful little chuckle.

Fili is winning, which is clear to Dis, by the fact that he’s picked up a book she’s reading from the coffee table and is currently eyeing the description on the back with curiosity.

Her own son doesn’t realise as yet, which is also clear to her by the furious frown on his face.

She tilts her head and watches the blue eyes slide over letters, and then slip away to watch Kili when he thinks nobody is paying any attention to him.

It only takes him a moment to realise that this is not the case and he meets Dis’ gaze, before carefully putting the book away.

While it’s not the reaction she wanted, it doesn’t change how she feels: she may have only given birth to one of them, but they might as well both be her sons.

‘Come help me make some tea to go with those delicious brownies you two made last night, Fili,’ she signs. ‘Let him ponder his inevitable loss a while longer.’

There’s a question in his eyes but he follows her all the same. He puts on a kettle, reaches for the tea, takes the tub of vanilla ice cream out of the freezer–

She thinks that she would have liked to have known him when he was growing up. She wonders if she would have dealt any better with him losing his voice so early in his life, if she could have supported him enough to get him to fight for himself more.

The envelope is only small and plain, but then this gift doesn’t need fancy packaging. She hands it over without any explanation.

The question is still there when he takes it and carefully slips out a plain blue access card.

‘I know Kili has a fingerprint lock, which makes sense in the city, but out here, we still rely on rather older technologies,’ she signs again, watching his face.

Blue eyes meet brown, wide, surprised, the thoughts behind them ricocheting like bullets. Still, Fili doesn’t ask.

‘For you. I want you to know that whatever happens between you and Kili in the future, you will always be welcome here. Do you think you could just… trust me on this?’

He flicks the card carefully in his fingers to reveal a space for the owner’s name and contact details.

He nods and it’s interesting how he doesn’t meet her eyes any more.

But that’s okay.

She moves to cut the brownies and is surprised when there’s a hand on her shoulder. He turns her gently and even more carefully wraps her in a hug.

“He says ‘thank you’,” Kili supplies helpfully, leaning against the doorframe to the kitchen and smiling softly.

 

\---


	26. Kiss Twenty-Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a gift for Linane because she is my fave and Merry Christmas! This is a sequel to the Train Boys in Chapters 17 (by me) and 18 (by her!) and is shameless fluff. :)

They spent the first Christmas after finding each other apart, each with his own family. Kíli’s were in the city, and Fíli’s, of course, all gathered at the lodge and worked through one of their busiest seasons. Kíli was determined that they not do the same thing for their second Christmas. 

“I’m coming with you!” he’d announced at the end of one of Fíli’s visits. In the summer, Fíli lived in the city, subletting or staying with a fellow PT as he worked through the lodge’s lean months. Once the snow was well-settled, however, he would pack up and move to his room in the family house and spend the winter months on the slopes of his beloved mountains. 

“Right now?” Fíli raised an eyebrow at him. Kíli was not a creature of snow. They’d discovered this when Kíli took his turns to visit at the lodge.

“No, you idiot, not now.” Kíli kissed him in a transparent bribe to get away with the insult. “I’m coming with you for Christmas. I don’t want to spend it apart this year, and I promised my parents I’d be home for the New Year. With no little kids in the family, it’s not a big deal.”

Fíli’s smile had been the sort that effortlessly lit up the room and made him incredibly popular with both sets of clients. “I’d love to have you there. ….I could come with you for New Year, if you like?”

“Your family would be all right with it?”

Fíli chuckled and wrapped his arms around Kíli, nuzzling at a very specific spot on Kíli’s neck that sent a shiver down Kíli’s spine and had better mean clothes were coming off one more time before Fíli left. There were _rules_ about use and possible abuse of that particular spot. “I’m a grown man, Kíli. I’m entitled to time off with the man I love, even if it is an awkward time. The seasonal hires will have to be enough.”

Plans had therefore been made for Kíli to spend the first part of the holiday at the lodge-but only after the rules were followed and a good time was had by all.

\---

It snowed in the city sometimes, but the heat and traffic kept it from staying around for long. In the mountains, the snow transformed the entire world into hills of white, carefully monitored and sculpted by Fíli’s family for the prime skiing season. With the dark trees of the forest and the bright blue of the sky, Kíli had to admit it was the most breath-taking, postcard-perfect Christmas of his life.

It was also the _coldest_ , and Kíli was a warm-weather man with a job that kept him right by his toasty space heater all winter long.

“Stop hiding in the doorway,” Fíli chided him as night fell on Christmas Eve and the sky was painted with more stars than Kíli had ever seen. There were white lights on the lodge, but light was carefully curated here to put emphasis on the natural beauty that was Fíli’s birthright. “I promise it’s warm by the bonfire. We only do this on Christmas, and you’re going to miss it!”

Kíli stuck his tongue out and immediately regretted it. Why was it so _cold_? There wasn’t even a wind blowing, which was clearly a blessing from heaven of some sort. “I can see it just fine from here.”

Fíli planted his hands on his hips. The smaller man was well-dressed against the weather, though he lacked at least two of the layers Kíli had wiggled on under the no-doubt expensive winter wear Fíli’s family had given him when he arrived. “If you don’t come to the bonfire,” he said decisively, “then you can’t get your present.”

Kíli gaped at him. “You don’t give presents on _Christmas Eve_ ,” he gasped, scandalized. “They’re for Christmas morning!”

“Maybe in your weird family,” Fíli teased back, “but in ours, it’s Christmas Eve, and it’s traditional to give them around the bonfire.” He made as if he was going to turn away. “Which means, no bonfire, and I get to keep your present for myself.”

Kíli grumbled and glared at the handsome ass. Just his luck he’d fallen head over heels for someone so cheeky in not just his past life, but his current one as well. “Fine,” he finally huffed, “but if I turn into a Kiliscicle, you’ll live to regret it.”

Fíli laughed and took Kíli’s gloved-and-mittened hand in his own. Fíli had called the combo overkill, but Kíli refused to admit that Fíli was right. Kíli could not, at the moment, actually hold the mug of coffee Fíli’s mother had kindly given him because he couldn’t actually bend his fingers properly.

But that was a secret he planned to take to his grave.

Guests and family both called hellos as Fíli claimed their spot beside the fire. He settled on a log, cut and smoothed over the years until it was much more comfortable than any long had business being, and then tugged Kíli down in front of him. He wrapped his arms around Kíli’s shoulders, his strong legs against Kíli’s side and, thanks to Kíli being on the ground, the comforting warmth of his breath stirring Kíli’s hair. 

Kili would have purred if he could, as the heat from Fili's body behind him paled in comparison to the roaring blaze of the fire. 

"I've never seen anything like it," he whispered, listening to the sharp cracks, breathing in the pleasant scent of wood smoke. He'd seen trashfires in his day, but nothing like this.

Fili's arms tightened around him. "I love the bonfire," he murmured. "It's probably my favorite part of the season. We only do one this size at Christmas, and..." his voice trailed off a moment.

"And?"

Kili felt the kiss to his head, even if it had to travel through a layer of warm wool crocheted by Fili's father. "And I am awed and humbled," Fili said, his voice soft but strong, "to be able to share it here with you." 

Kili felt his cheeks heat up - not an unwelcome effect of his pleased embarrassment - and wiggled in Fili's arms so he could catch a glimpse of his lover's profile. "Me too," he said, and for a moment there was the memory of a thousand fires, of new friends who became family, of dark and fear and danger in the dark, all chased away by the snap of wood and light of the fire. "I remember..."

"Me too," Fili told him, and Kili rested his hands on top of Fili's, giving them as much of a squeeze as he could muster in his overzealous glove combination. For a time, they were quiet. Sharing silence was something new in Kili's life, something he had found the wonder of only when he glimpsed Fili on the train a year and a half ago. Most of his life, he'd always felt the need to move, to talk, to chatter; but here, with Fili, the silences were warm and comfortable and wrapped up in a million memories of when they had first fallen in love, under the starry skies above the Blue Mountains.

But, well. Kili was still Kili, and there was only so much silence he could take. 

"About this present..."

Fili chuckled. "Yes?"

"I didn't bring mine out for you, since we're not heathens who open our gifts a day early."

"That's all right," Fili said easily, then after a pause, "the truth is...my present for you is really asking you for a gift."

Kili twisted around, frowning up at Fili's eyes, black in the firelight. "What?"

Fili smiled and reached out, tucking hair behind Kili's ear and adjusting his warm hat before speaking. "My gift is more of a request now that I think about it," he said quietly. "I should have brought a back-up."

Kili narrowed his eyes. "I'd better like this request," he warned. "We take Christmas gifts very seriously in my family."

Fili's smile softened, the dimples lost in shadow. "I know." He took a breath and reached into the breast pocket of his coat, snapping it open and pulling out a small box.

Kili's heart skipped a beat. 

He couldn't be serious.

"Kili," Fili said, "because I am an utterly selfish bastard, my Christmas present for you is really a present for me. Because what I want more than anything in the world is to spend the rest of my life with you. So I was hoping you would accept this-"

"Yes!" Kili interrupted, spinning awkwardly on his knees. 

"I haven't finished-"

"Is it a wedding ring?"

Fili looked a bit sheepish. "Well...yes. Or no." He snapped open the case to reveal not platinum or gold, but a bright green monstronsity with what appeared to be a tiny spider trapped inside.

Kili gaped. It was horrible. 

"It's actually a plastic one I got in a crane game because I thought we should pick them out together," Fili rushed to explain. "I like doing things together with you more than on my own."

Kili's scowl melted into a grin and he pushed off with one knee (the other regrettably wobbly and striking him with pins and needles at the moment because he'd let it fall asleep) to throw himself into Fili's arms. "That," he said as Fili fell backward into the snow with a yelp, "is the most romantic thing I've ever heard."

"So still a yes?"

Cocky bastard, Kili thought fondly, even as he pressed cold lips to cold lips, melted by warm breath and every emotion bubbling in his chest. "Still a yes," he assured Fili as hoots and hollars sounded around them in friendly congratulation.


	27. Kiss Twenty Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for MyLittleDragonHoard :)
> 
> There. I've mended that stupid film for you. Now it's how it should have been. 
> 
> ... And then I've sprinkled aliens liberally all over it, as you do...

One day, their ships just appeared in the skies.

There was a lot of confusion at first, attempts at establishing contact, various levels of alerts.

When it came, the invasion was brutal, but quick. Whole cities burned, between the napalm missiles which rained from the mother ships and the variety of conventional weapons that the governments used to try and take them out.

Nothing worked, save nukes, and once several of those were fired, it became clear that the nuclear fallout wasn’t worth taking a ship down.

Later, when their supremacy was well-established, the first ground troops appeared. They didn’t seem to have any specific aim, apart from destruction and killing. They used biological weapons which wiped out entire districts, as well as plasma guns and mechanised destroyers.

They ate some of the corpses.

Gradually shelters and bunkers fell, one by one.

Erebor was one of the last ones to go. A complex mined inside an entire mountain, with access points small and well-defended.

It wasn’t very practical, but it kept them safe.

They didn’t account for a ship literally crash-landing into a mountain side and ripping its way inside through sheer rock. Once in, it was pretty much over. Only a handful managed to escape.

Fili and Kili were there when it happened, although it wasn’t their home. They saw first-hand the level of destruction that a single incursion could inflict. And then they ran, hid, survived.

Being excellent fighters and knowing the layout of the place made them prime candidates when Thorin announced they would take the mountain back. It was the only way – Erebor had been full to the brim with supplies and resources, latest weapons systems and tech. If humanity was ever going to take the aliens down, it needed a safe place to develop its weapons and strategy.

Besides, it was Thorin’s home; and Thorin didn’t take kindly to those who tried to take it away from him.

 

\---

 

“I can only take able-bodied fighters. Stay here Kili, hole up in one of the houses. I’ll send men to get you, once we’re established inside.”

“You can’t be serious,” this from Kili, outraged but still disbelieving. “I’m _fine_ ”.

“He’s the reason you’re here at all,” Fili hisses, seething with barely contained anger. “You can’t just – ditch him!”

“He can barely stand! What do you think our new friends would think of me if I started dragging a liability around?!”

“Oh, so I’m suddenly a liability now! Didn’t seem that way when you planted me on that roof earlier. I’m a sniper, for fucks’ sake, I don’t _need_ to stand!”

“More importantly, Kili is blood! You just don’t leave your own kin behind!” Fili snarls.

“Think for a moment, both of you! Kili is not fit for this mission, end of! He’ll be much safer here than where we’re going!”

“Oh sure! On my own. With strangers. I’d have better chances dangled in front of the Crawlers in the Mountain as bait!”

Fili has learned long ago how to hide his true emotions; it’s essential in his line of work and it allows him a buffer zone he maintains with everyone but his closest friends.

But right now there are things that need to be said. Right now Fili’s usual calm is going to hell.

“Kili _deserves_ to be there when you walk through those gates. Hell, chances are you won’t get through any gates at all without him! We’ve managed to carry him this far, we’ll manage a little bit further; _I’ll_ manage, if it comes to this. There’s medicine in that mountain, the kind that he _needs_! You promised mum that you wouldn’t let anything happen to us, to him, you egoistic son of a bitch!”

That finally does it and Thorin hauls him around by his fur collar, before slamming him hard against the nearest wall. “My promise to your mother is exactly why I’m leaving him behind. He would only get in the way. One day you’ll be a leader yourself, and you’ll understand.”

 _Not one like you,_ Fili thinks furiously, kicking out and twisting to neatly free himself from his uncle’s grasp. He lands easily, crouched to one knee, his hand on the handle of a knife, eyes narrowed in a silent challenge. He’s past the hot-headed rage and into cold, calculated storm of deadly intent. One wrong move and he will take them all if he needs to.

Thorin knows it too, has seen his nephew like this, covered in blood and wild. He takes a step back. “Don’t be a fool, Fili. You’re a soldier. You belong with this party.”

Fili snarls, muscles locked. “I belong with my brother.”

He watches the little flotilla of motorboats and pontoons take off one by one and feels Kili’s weight against his shoulder. People are disappearing now, slinking back into the shadows and reverting back to the belief that each to their own. He knows better than to beg for help, no matter how much he wants to.

“Prick,” Kili whispers, his breath tickling Fili’s cheek. “He’ll only get them killed unless they can find a way to get in on the quiet and activate the weapons systems.”

“Not our problem now,” Fili responds just as quietly.

He’s surprised when Bard, the leader of the local people and Thorin’s latest nemesis, stops in front of them and passes him several clear bottles. “He’ll need these,” the dark haired man simply says. The labels say that it’s morphine and penicillin, some of the most expensive commodities around.

He nods in acknowledgement as he slips the vials into a side pocket of his cargo pants and stares at the man curiously, trying to gauge if there’s a price to pay for his gift.

“I’d go to the outskirts if I were you. Find a quiet little suburb, don’t attract any attention. I don’t know if he’ll come back, but you’d be safer assuming that this is long term. You’re on your own though; my people won’t bother you, but nor will they get involved.”

Fili nods again, his own thoughts following similar patterns. “Thanks,” he says eventually and thinks that perhaps there are still good people left in this world.

 

\---

 

The thing that pisses Fili off most of all is that Kili wasn’t hurt by Crawlers, but by _people_.

They have stumbled upon this crazy hippie commune, hidden in the heart of a forest, forgotten by most everyone but themselves and ruled by the most eccentric, self-important asshole Fili ever met.

And Fili got to work with Thorin on a daily basis.

They wanted to subject them to tests – genetic material, skillsets, aptitude, resilience, that sort of thing. But after several rather painful sessions of harnessing their biological samples, the whole Company was summarily sent to dungeons, like some sick medieval LARP and –

That was it.

Nothing. For days, weeks. Starvation rations. When they rebelled against the mind-blowing boredom and hunger, they were told to meditate. Meditate!

Eventually, their one and only civilian rescued them, sneaking in god knows how and materialising out of the thin air with the key-cards.

After that it all went swimmingly, until they got to the compound gates. _Locked gates,_ obviously.

The bullets zinged in the air, but they were hardly novices – soldiers to boot, well trained and each expert in their own field. They defended their positions, regrouped, retreated when they had to.

Why they couldn’t just _talk this through_ Fili, the group’s negotiator, would never understand. They had a common enemy after all, bigger fish to fry, it would have been so _easy_ –

And then Kili did something very _Kili_ , which often stood for ‘stupid’, and ran for the terminal. Fili swore and followed automatically, covering them both with frantic fire.

To be fair, Kili was damn good at what he was doing too. He didn’t flinch at the bullets flying around his ears; he hacked through the first firewall, then the second one, he wrote an override – and collapsed with a choked scream as a bullet hit him squarely in the side of his thigh.

It was Fili who hit the ‘Enter’ button, Fili who hauled him, bleeding all over the floor to the slowly opening gates.

He didn’t expect the drop outside. But it only took one glance at the shadows moving towards them and Fili threw both of them over the edge.

 

\---

 

Fili’s hands – still wrapped up in his fingerless gloves, he notes dimly – flick to another page. He’s so tired, from the constant sense of danger and mounting worry, that he could easily curl up right here, in between the bookshelves, and fall asleep right on the floor. They’ve slept in worse places.

Instead, he shakes his head, making the blond strands dance in front of his vision from where they’ve slipped out of his messy braid, and tries to focus on the words and diagrams visible on the page in the faint moonlight.

It’s perhaps 2 a.m. and they’ve heard Crawlers, skittering about or rummaging in the area at least three times so far. It’s only a matter of time before they are discovered and before then Fili needs to memorise as much as possible.

Despite Fili’s fur-lined jacket wrapped tightly around him, his brother is rattled by fever-induced shivers, quiet moans slipping from his lips almost constantly and that damn bullet still lodged firmly inside his leg. It’s been two days and according to the book in Fili’s hands, he’s likely developing a sepsis.

Which will kill him. Soon.

In short, they’re out of options. Fortunately, the City Library of Laketown, stocking no food supplies or weapons, has mostly been left alone for Fili to explore in search of medical journals, biology books, surgical manuals and anything else he can get his hands on. It’s dangerous as hell, but Fili won’t dare to try and remove the bullet without at least some understanding of what he’s doing.

He might not be a medic, but he’s Kili’s only hope.

 

\---

 

They stay put until it’s nearly noon and Fili has a vague understanding of what the inside of Kili’s leg looks like.

They slip out through the back door - Kili barely lucid at this point - and move cautiously, through the maze of back alleys and half-ruined buildings as far away as possible. Fili could probably defend them with the array of weapons he’s got on him, but not for very long. Not if Kili can’t move, anyway.

They’re not particularly picky about which direction they’re going, guided mostly by whatever seems to be the safest route away from the town centre.

They need to find somewhere safe, and fast.

 

\---

 

The house looks just like all the other ones in this quiet street, lined with birch trees. That makes it perfect for what they need. There is no visible damage in this part of town, making it seem as if everyone just left for some sort of weird mass-holiday.

In a way it’s nice to stay in an area that still somehow looks _normal_.

The door simply opens when Fili presses the handle, panting with exertion because it must have been at least three miles and Kili has not been particularly involved in covering them. He locks the door behind them and freezes, listening intently.

Nothing.

Still, they know better than just to move in and throw a house warming party.

Flicking the safety off on his favourite beretta with a silencer and leaving Kili with another gun by the door, Fili moves to check the house thoroughly, top to bottom, taking in the layout, the spaces available and how safe they might be, various hiding spots they might have to use one day. Then he checks the back garden, the shed, finally wistfully eyeing the hot water tub in the corner.

By the time he comes back, Kili is slumped unconsciously on the floor, gun still in his hands.

They’ve ran out of time.

It takes effort, but Fili manages to pull his brother on top of the kitchen island, which places him at a comfortable level for Fili to work on him.

“Hnnnn?” Kili stirs, sluggishly trying to roll away.

“Shhh… I’ve got you, Kee. I need you to stay quiet. Can you do that?”

“Why?” Kili frowns, trying to focus. “I don’t feel so good, Fee.”

“I know. That’s what I’m trying to fix. But it may… hurt a little.”

“Like that one time you pierced my ears?”

That makes Fili smile. They were thirteen and fifteen respectively at the time and Kili had been pestering him for a week, until Fili caved in, risking the wrath of their mother. “Perhaps a little bit more. But we’ll try and tackle that first.”

Alcohol he finds in one of the cupboards is an unexpected blessing. He makes Kili drink three quarters of a bottle of gin, then finishes it himself. It doesn’t make him feel any better about what he’s about to do, but it does calm him down.

As for Kili – it only makes him chatty; he’s always been a happy drunk.

Fili stabs him with a needle full of morphine just to top it up and because he figures that what’s coming is the one point when Kili will need it the most.

He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a moment. He draws deep on that steady core inside him that has always kept him centred and remembers Kili’s deep, delighted laughter. He doesn’t know what he’ll do if that laughter is no more; he might as well try to operate on his own heart.

Cut. Drain. Disinfect.

Kili groans, deep and agonised and Fili’s blood runs cold, everything inside him screaming to stop.

 _Focus_.

He tries with the tweezers he’s found in the bathroom, but they’re too small.

Spoon. Two spoons held like chopsticks and he’s never been particularly good with those.

 _Fuck_.

Kili is thrashing, his fingers clawing at the smooth kitchen top.

Drain again. Disinfect. Try deeper.

Finally, he feels metal scraping against metal and doesn’t dare breathe as he carefully pulls both spoons out. The crumpled shell drops out from between them, but Fili has already shifted his attention back to Kili’s leg.

Drain. As much as possible. Disinfect. He picks up dental floss and a needle he’s put through the flame in advance. He couldn’t think of anything better to use.

His mother taught him how to sew and he remembers her strong hands as she did it. Edges neatly aligned, tugging gently but firmly until it’s all closed up tight.

 _It’s the infection that will kill him,_ he thinks, carefully cleaning the outside edges of the wound and applying a big blob of antiseptic cream onto the dressing. Then the penicillin. He injects it close to the wound, has no idea if it matters. He has two more vials so he figures one per day.

He cleans the rest of Kili’s leg and uses a fresh bandage to wrap it up tightly.

Somehow, he’s still breathing, but that’s it; that’s all he can manage right now.

He slides down to the floor when he starts feeling light-headed and presses his back against one of the cupboards to steady himself. Somehow, without his permission, there are tears rolling down his cheeks. He wipes at them angrily, but they keep coming.

He closes his eyes because they burn. Just for a second, just to rest them.

Somehow it’s the last thing Fili remembers.

 

\---

 

“Fee? Hurts.”

The words make him jerk awake, throwing disoriented glances around the kitchen they appear to be in, a knife appearing in his hand in an instant.

“Uuuuugh…”

That’s right. Kili. That one thought makes him push up and struggle back to his feet.

“I’m right here, Kili. It’s going to be okay,” he murmurs, stroking the side of his brother’s face to brush the messy hair out of the way.

Eighteen months ago Kili was a cheerful IT student and a passionate gamer; today he’s stretched on top of somebody else’s kitchen island with no one but Fili there to perform a complicated medical procedure on his leg.

Fili wants to scream.

“You can’t be Fee,” Kili insists. “He… walks his own path.”

“Kili?” he frowns, wondering if this rambling delusion means that his brother’s condition is deteriorating.

Glassy brown eyes lock on to the blue ones. “He’s always been there for me, you see. So close… I could reach out and touch him. But Fili isn’t mine. Not allowed.” he hesitates, swallows. “Do you think he could have loved me?”

He doesn’t realise somehow that Kili is still tied down, until he can feel just the tips of his fingers brushing against his hand, since that’s all Kili can move.

The words make him bite his lip, hard. He doesn’t understand why it hurts so much to hear this quiet and broken plea. He doesn’t want to think about it, _can’t_ think about it.

“Right. Let’s get you somewhere more comfy,” he whispers instead, undoing the belts criss-crossing Kili’s chest and focussing on the practicalities.

 

\---

 

The master bedroom is out of the question.

The two corpses still curled up together on the bed reflect starkly in Fili’s blue irises. He’s seen too much of this sort of thing to feel shocked, so he merely stands in the doorway for a moment, a silent witness acknowledging the death before him.

 _Even the damn dog,_ he thinks viciously, noting another furry carcass in the foot of the bed. He can’t identify the breed.

He closes the door against the smell and heads towards the next door at the end of the hall.

The contrast couldn’t be any starker. The walls are bright purple and decorated with a mural of characters from W.I.T.C.H. In the middle there’s a decent double bed with rumpled, horribly clashing, pink Hello Kitty sheets. Nice, thick duvet.

He sighs and walks in feeling his shoulders tighten. He flicks the covers first, raising a cloud of dust, then sinks to the floor to look under the bed. He opens the wardrobe, pushes a number of neatly ironed school uniforms aside, idly looks through a couple of boxes containing hats and scarves. Next he moves to the cupboard and takes a deep breath. He opens the door, jumping aside, just in case.

Nothing. The girl must have been away when whatever killed these people arrived in this sleepy street.

The room is dusty but clean. Located at the back of the house, with white roller-blinds already pulled down.

It will do.

 

\---

 

Completely out of it and muttering nonsense, Kili weighs about three tons.

To make matters worse, the staircase is too narrow for Fili to carry him bridal style and he doesn’t dare perform a fireman’s carry, in case it puts pressure on, or cuts circulation off Kili’s leg. Eventually, after a lot of huffing and puffing, he finds an ironing board, unscrews the legs and ties it to Kili’s waist and around his legs. This improvised stretcher allows him to haul his brother under his arms without jostling his leg.

They always make it look so easy in the films. It is _not_ easy.

Having finally reached the landing, he sits down heavily on the last stair and wraps his arms around Kili’s chest to stop him slipping down while Fili catches his breath.

“You’re a – a massive – pain in the ass – you know that?”

Kili doesn’t respond, but he does nuzzle his face into the crook of Fili’s neck, as if he wasn’t one tenuous grip away from a painful roll all the way down to the bottom.

“Right,” Fili rolls his eyes and starts hauling again to get Kili flat onto the landing.

 

\---

 

Stretched out in a comfy bed, Kili looks –

Like his little brother again. Long-limbed boy, who stayed up too late again watching films inappropriate for his age and dozed off on the sofa. He remembers carrying him in his arms to bed, dumping him unceremoniously onto the mattress for being too heavy already back then.

“Don’t tell mum,” Kili insisted, his grip like iron around Fili’s wrist.

And Fili never did.

Just when and how Kili became this independent, grown man Fili knows now, he has no idea.

He tucks his brother into the pink covers, carefully removing a teddy-bear half-squashed under his pillow to give him more space. Kili is still burning up, but he isn’t thrashing anymore. Whether this is because of Fili’s assorted ‘anaesthetics’ or the medicine in his system, there’s no way to tell.

He leaves the gun on the bedside table and the semi-automatic against the wall next to the door, before slipping out of his jumper, cargo pants and socks and climbing under the covers himself. He’s exhausted – worn down to the bone with worry and weight of responsibility and he needs to switch off, even if it’s just for a few hours, if he wants to stay sane. It will be safer like this – he tells himself – if anything was to happen, at least they’ll be together.

As the sleep crowds in around the edges of his consciousness and Kili rolls over to his other side so Fili can pull him flush to his chest, he can’t help but think of the other couple, still curled up in their bed in the other room.

 

\---

 

He’s woken up by a warm press of soft lips against his own. Slowly other things register: a calloused hand stroking gently over his cheek bone, the slight burn of stubble rubbing against his chin, warmth and closeness of another body.

It isn’t passionate, but it _is_ intimate, more intimate than anything Fili has ever experienced before and despite himself he allows his lips to part, just a little, tilts his head a fraction –

He kisses back.

“Do you think he could have loved me?”

Kind, brown eyes in front of him, full of longing but also trust. More importantly, Kili is no longer burning up – his eyes are clear, if surrounded by stark, dark circles.

“You were off your face with alcohol and drugs,” he mutters, sitting up and running a hand over his face.

“They only made me brave. I’ve been meaning to ask that for a very long time.” A hand covering his own makes Fili turn to look at his brother: a mess of tangled hair made dark with sweat, colour slowly returning to his skin, full lips. “You saved me. I would have been dead if not for what you’ve done. I’ve got no idea _how_ you’ve done it, but thank you.”

He can’t hide the shudder that runs down his spine at the thought of Kili being dead and he closes his eyes before falling back down into the rumpled pillows. When he opens them again Kili is watching him, but he isn’t pushing so he rolls a little and pulls him tight to his chest.

“You’re not out of the woods yet. Sleep, Kili. We can talk later.”

 

\---

 

He leans in the doorframe and watches Kili stretch to try and grab the switch for the fairy lights attached to the underside of the shelf above the bed. Fili would protest, but it’s a beautiful sunny morning so the chances of anyone spotting the light are non-existent and Kili is bored. He never could sit still for too long.

“Love what you’ve done with the place,” Kili grins, having spotted him.

“Thank you. Irma has always been my favourite, hence the place of pride right by the window.” He helps Kili sit up propped on a stack of pillows and gets a grateful smile in return. “Ready for your healthy, nutritious breakfast?”

“Oh yeah! What’ve we got?”

“Soft Choco Pops.”

“Mmmm… just what I wanted today. How did you know?”

“I always do.”

Carefully, he shakes out a portion into Kili’s waiting hands, then settles down next to him to get some for himself. He muses that if this was home, he’d never ever get away with eating crunchy things in bed, straight out of the box and with no bowl, while wearing torn and bloodied cargo pants and socks with holes big enough to fit his entire big toe.

He wiggles the toe in question. This isn’t home.

“It was either Choco Pops or Alpha-Bits,” he says for something to say.

“There’s letter cereal and you didn’t bring it?!” Kili stares at him with an expression of utter betrayal making Fili arch up his eyebrow.

“Right away, Sir. Forgive my poor judgement,” he mutters, slipping off the bed and leaving the packet with Kili to retrieve the other one.

The first word Kili manages is ‘BLOB’. It’s not very original, but it makes him snort in delight and it’s been so long since Fili heard that particular sound.

Kili’s next word is ‘DICK’, while Fili cheats and tries to surreptitiously pick the right letters straight out of the box for the word ‘TASSERACT’ which would be a properly impressive result.

“Okay okay, new rules!” Kili announces in a rush, sticking his hand out for more. “You can only eat it if you manage a rude word.”

Fili huffs – he’s only missing a ‘C’ at this point – but obediently dishes out a new portion.

“’‘FUCK’” Kili announces proudly almost immediately and shoves the letters in his mouth.

“’TOSSER’” Fili fires back, having finally found an ‘O’.

“That’s not rude, that’ like… slightly impolite.”

“It’s totally rude! It’s basically the same as ‘wanker’!”

“Alright, alright, grandpa. I’ve got ‘ARSE’.”

“What are you now, British?”

“Jolly well I am! You’ve got a problem with that, mate?”

Fili gives him a ‘you’re an idiot’ frown, before focussing on finding an ‘R’ for a word ‘FART’, which will be guaranteed to make Kili giggle.

 

\---

 

In the shed Fili finds a spade. He pauses for a moment, weighing it in his hand, then turns to look at the bedroom windows.

He can’t bring himself to try and separate the two corpses in the master bedroom. Instead, he rolls them up together in the duvet and ties it up with the belts from their bath robes.

It’s not dignified, but irrationally he thinks that it’s at least warm, comfortable and familiar. Which is the best he can do under the circumstances.

On the stairs he encounters the same problem as before, only this time he doesn’t need to be quite so careful; he gently tugs his bundle down the stairs, through the hall, living room, kitchen and out the back.

There he pauses, listening carefully for a long while, but there’s only silence.

Digging a grave in the garden is a risk of course, but the fence on all three sides is tall, hiding him from view, and in the middle of the day he should be okay, so long as he doesn’t make too much noise.

He works quickly, feeling sweat drip into his eyes, but finds solace in the familiar burn of exertion in his muscles.

He comes back for the dog as well, wrapping it carefully into one of the bath robes and thinking that it deserves to rest with its masters for the loyalty it displayed even in death.

Once it’s done, he leans heavily on his spade and stares at the slightly raised mound of earth. He doesn’t know how to pray any more, hasn’t tried in months.

 _Goodbye, Grace and Martin_ , he thinks as softly as he can instead, the names coming back to him from the unopened mail by the door. _I hope you’re better off wherever you are now._

 

\---

 

“You’ve never answered me.”

“Hm?” Fili carefully removes the dressing and sprays the uneven edges of the wound he’s stitched together with more hydrogen peroxide.

Kili hisses and twists his hands in the sheets.

“Sorry. It appears to be closing though,” he murmurs in astonishment.

“Look at me, Fili.” It’s so determined that Fili automatically does, blue eyes meeting brown. “Do you think you could love me? Not now. But maybe… one day.”

Fili swallows, any and all words stuck in his throat.

“Please. I nearly died yesterday. Don’t you think we’ve danced around it long enough? I love you Fili, I’ve loved you for years, ever since I knew what love was. I don’t even – I’ll understand if you don’t want to be physical with me, but Fili, I need –“

 _Me_ , he thinks, willing his hands to steady so he can wrap the bandage back around Kili’s leg.

“I need to know.”

“This isn’t the time, Kili. You’ve said it yourself – we could be dead tomorrow and then what difference does it make?”

“It makes _all_ the difference!!” The simple sentence echoes inside Fili’s heart like a bell.

“If I tell you… If we do this, you’ll know. There will be no taking it back. It will make you do things. Stupid things. And me too.”

“I think we already have an established record in that respect.”

“I’m serious, Kili. They’ve done… things to me. And I’ve done things. And I can take a lot, but this… This is my heart.”

“It’s mine too,” Kili reminds him quietly and it makes Fili do something stupid, just like he predicted.

He kisses Kili with desperate fear, with all the longing tearing through him, making his chest tight. For a moment he thinks the intensity of everything he’s held back for so long will overwhelm him, shattering his carefully maintained equilibrium, until Kili’s fingers slip into his hair, slowing them down and making him open up to the flood of emotions inside him.

“If you ever… change your mind. It will destroy me,” he whispers on a breath he’s drawn from Kili’s lungs.

“I won’t.”

They press their foreheads together and just breathe for a while, making Fili sink and sink and sink into something that feels like peace after a lifetime of waging war within his own soul.

“I love you, Kili.” He can feel his brother’s breath hitch and he wraps his arm around him to help keep him whole. “For the rest of our lives, however long that may be, you’ve got me; you’ve got all of me.”

 

\---

 

When he wakes up again he can’t remember how he fell asleep.

He remembers whispered confessions in the dark, warmth of Kili’s body and more kisses than Fili has ever been given in all his life prior.

“Don’t move. My leg doesn’t hurt as bad elevated like that.”

He realises he’s wrapped in Kili, completely content and feeling safe for the first time in an age. Kili’s leg is indeed flung over both of Fili’s, resting casually on top of his thigh.

“There’s Ibuprofen. I could bring it.”

“Later. I… don’t want to let you go.”

“No,” Fili agrees. “Don’t. Not ever. Not even when I’m being stupid and too preoccupied to notice -”

“That you’re in love with me?”

“That I’m in love with you.”

Kili gives a pleased little rumble, but otherwise makes no move. He’s always _loved_ to be proven right.

They stay like this for a long while, slowly coming to terms with having each other now, in more ways than ever before. It’s enough. It’s all that matters now.

Somewhere in the distance there’s a dull rumble of explosions inside the mountain, faint tremors of the ground and that alone should send them running, but they’ve come so far to save Kili’s life and they’re not ready to move after all that.

They wonder, briefly, what it must be like inside. Hell, most likely.

And maybe it’s selfish, but they’re glad they’re not there, not a part of it any more. It’s like all the pieces have finally fallen into place: their own path, their survival, things that are important to them.

The mountain has never been their home; it’s always been wherever the other was.

 

\---


	28. Kiss Twenty Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Kaetien / Eternal Scribe (Shadowcat) :)

The first moments of his life are _agony_.

Emotions running amok, pushing at him and engulfing him like waves, until the Reaper hyperventilates and passes out.

He’s never _felt_ this much, and although he has watched feelings in others many times before, it’s nothing like when it all rages on inside his own soul, volume ramped up to maximum and then some.

He thought he knew feelings when it came to Fili; in fact although _what_ he feels hasn’t changed, it’s like so far he’s only been hearing a distant echo and now the sound itself has caught up with him.

He’s deafened and stunned.

Through it all a voice, hoarse but there, grounding him: “Easy Kili, calm down. I’m still here, right here. Everything’s going to be alright. You’re going to be just fine.”

An endless litany of soothing nonsense.

Pitched against it: fear, longing, sadness, vulnerability and shock. And more fear.

Kili whimpers, curls and fights to hold himself together.

 

\---

 

It’s been five hours and twenty two minutes since Fili was meant to die.

More than anything he feels exhausted. His body hurts, though there isn’t any single source of this pain, so the doctors feed him an array of tablets and IVs to try and stop his internal organs from shutting down. By any standards he should be completely out of it, allowing his body to tiptoe back from the brink, do the healing it needs to do.

Instead, stubbornly, Fili tries to stay awake, annoyed that his consciousness takes all those little side-trips into dreams instead of staying put like he wants it to.

On the edge of his bed Kili, head pillowed on top of his arms, trying to make himself stop being a part of this world. It’s Fili’s fault, so he blinks at the terrified dark eyes and tries to offer at least a tiny bit of comfort, allowing his hand to sink into the messy hair and stroke.

It seems to be the only thing stopping his Reaper from bolting.

He wishes people would just leave them alone, but it’s unlikely with the way they have just defied all medical prognoses.

So instead he tries to telegraph his support and hangs in there as life once more claims one of its own.

 

\---

 

It’s safe inside Fili’s arms.

It’s safe inside Fili’s arms.

It’s safe inside Fili’s arms.

 

\---

 

Doctor Bergman allows Kili to take the empty bed next to Fili’s for a couple of hours’ sleep, but within moments of doors closing Kili is climbing onto Fili’s bed, curling up along his body.

“She’s going through a divorce,” he whispers through gritted teeth, hiding in the crook of Fili’s shoulder. “All that fury, fear and bitterness. It’s too much.”

An arm around his waist, lending him silent strength. “And what about me?”

“Relief that we’re both still here, worry because I don’t look so good. Fear that this is too good to be true, and doubt that I have actually managed to heal you.”

“Sorry, it’s just –“

“Too good to be true. Yeah.” Kili doesn’t sound offended though, just honest. “And underneath it all… love. Deep, steady, grateful, love. It’s the only thing that doesn’t hurt in this place.”

“You can read my thoughts?”

“No, nothing quite so specific. More like… Empathy. I can feel your emotions. _Everyone’s_ emotions. I always could, but it never -” he pauses searching for the right word, “- _mattered to me_ before.

 

\---

 

Fili’s recovery isn’t nearly as miraculous as his sudden remission.

His body is devastated by the illness, weak from a period of near-starvation, and takes its time patiently knitting its tissues and organs back together.

He sleeps a lot, when he _isn’t_ being wheeled around for yet another battery of blood tests, EKG scans and biopsies. The procedures exhaust him, and sometimes whole days go by when he drifts away as soon as he’s brought back to his room.

Kili grits his teeth and makes himself wait.

His own case is much easier to explain by the modern medicine: a severe case of shock caused by overworking and prolonged emotional distress.

They give him plenty of fluids, a blanket and a mild sedative for what amounts to rebirth.

 

\---

 

“Can you still tell when…”

“No. Not for you.”

“And for others?”

Kili hides his face in the pillow and whispers “please don’t ask me.”

 

\---

 

Fili demands tests. Not just for himself, but for Kili as well. He needs to know, needs to be _sure_ that the illness he hates the most in the world isn’t going to claim Kili’s life now.

He doesn’t know if there’s anything different about the Reaper’s blood, which might betray his existence.

“Even if there is, things have a way of… working out around us,” Kili shrugs before entering the examination room.

He bares his arm for the needles, even though he _knows_ that the results will come back clear.

It’s not about him, it’s about Fili and doing whatever he needs to do to be able to put this behind him.

 

\---

 

They finally stumble out of a taxi and through the front door of Fili’s flat almost two weeks later.

“To bed,” Fili orders, watching the dark circles under the eyes of his Reaper.

Kili moves like he’s always moved: reliable, emphatic and practical. He looks at Fili as if he was made out of glass, which to him is probably accurate, but there’s fear in his eyes now, which wasn’t there before.

“No, you too,” Fili insists, catching Kili’s wrist and tugging him down when they finally hit the soft mattress so unlike the hospital one.

Kili sighs, but it sounds relieved, and strips out of his clothes with efficient moves. “I’m not used to having to sleep regularly,” he murmurs, slipping under the covers.

“I think there’s a bit more to it than that,” Fili replies, but doesn’t push. Instead, he wraps his arms around brunet’s shoulders and allows him to hide in the space he’s created, stroking gently through the messy hair.

They have things to talk about. Later, when they’re stronger.

 

\---

 

It’s been over a month since Fili was meant to die.

Kili busies himself cooking. Cooking makes him – he considers, eventually settles on – happy.

Delicious, nutritious meals, full of natural vitamins, proteins and balanced sugars. Things that will make Fili better.

Fili wolfs it all down with real gratitude and admiration in his eyes. “It’s different when you have the appetite,” he says and offers that kind smile, the one that makes Kili’s chest swell and his heart pound steadily.

He picks at his chicken and smiles at the leftover carrots.

Fili is right, although for Kili it’s about something else: it’s different when you have the appetite for love.

 

\---

 

“A cabin.” Fili watches his Reaper’s eyes for a reaction. “It’s fairly basic, but I think with some scrubbing, DIY and fairy lights we could make it liveable. It’s up in the mountains, about 40 minutes out from the nearest town. My dad inherited it from some distant family, and when he passed away I got it from him. I’ve only been up there once, but I liked it – it’s peaceful.”

“No people?”

“Not for a few miles. We’ll need to make supply runs, but I can take care of it myself.”

“I will try and come too. When I’m feeling up for it. How long can we stay?”

“As long as you need. Forever, if that’s what it takes. Believe it or not, it has coverage so we wouldn’t be completely cut off from the world and I can pick up freelance work as a website designer. And there’s a book I’ve been meaning to write for years…”

“You’d do that for me?”

“For _us_. I’m doing this as much for me as for you. A brush with death gives you a new perspective, you know. Makes you consider what’s really important to you, how you want to spend your life. I’ve learned my lesson, Kili.”

The brunet nods slowly. “But… Won’t you miss the city? You’re throwing all your chips in with me…”

“Hardly,” Fili actually smiles at his Reaper. “It’s still only a Skype call away from my friends. Plus, a man who gave up his immortality to save my life is probably a keeper.”

That makes Kili blush and Fili wants to kiss him, right on those gorgeous, prominent cheekbones of his, which make nurses do a double-take at him. But they haven’t gone back to kisses, not as yet, not since this earth-shattering experience between them changed what was likely a hopeless last-minute romance into a meaningful, real possibility.

They haven’t found themselves yet, nevermind each other.

So instead Fili says, “It’s a beautiful spot for a bit of soul-searching and to be honest, for re-building my physical stamina too. We could go hiking in the summer, maybe get a dog –“

“Fili,” Kili interrupts him. “I don’t need any more convincing, you had me at ‘a cabin’. I’ll help you pack, if you can tell me what we’re taking.” He smiles and for the first time there’s something like hope in his eyes.

 

\---

 

“Do you have a bucket list?” Fili asks, watching Kili hop around on one foot awkwardly as he tries on yet another pair of Fili’s pants for size.

“Well, n-no…” the ex-Reaper very nearly over-balances and ends up leaning heavily against a cabinet.

“I think you should make one,” Fili decides for him and gets up from the sofa to retrieve pen and paper. “I won’t be able to teleport us to Venice like you did, but I’d still like to do what I can.”

 

\---

 

They stand in front of the simple wooden structure hand in hand, heavy backpacks behind them, like the baggage of everything they’ve been through so far.

They stand and they stare at a sanctuary, a home perhaps. A chance.

It’s been two months since Fili was meant to die.

 

\---

 

“How do you live not knowing if your nearest and dearest will still be there in the morning?” Kili asks one late night from the safety of their bed, both of them tucked in under a pile of blankets because they couldn’t get the fireplace going properly.

“It’s not like we have much choice,” Fili tells him pragmatically, his eyes still closed. “I suppose wise people would tell you to do the best you can with the time you’re given with them. It makes it… well, not _worth it_ , but better.”

“Hmmmm…”

“How do you live knowing when your nearest and dearest will die?” Fili asks in turn.

“You… do the best you can with the time you’re given with them,” Kili repeats, allowing the silence to set in between them for a while. “It’s _awful_ , he whispers eventually, pulling Fili closer.

“I can’t even imagine…” Fili whispers back, thinking about his mother and father.

It isn’t easy talking about these things, but it’s a part of their story all the same.

 

\---

 

Kili is trying to put together a dresser when Fili appears in the doorway rosy-cheeked and brandishing a set of old, wooden sledge.

“Look at what I found in the shed!” he announces gleefully. “Leave that, we can sort it out in the evening. We have to go!”

“Go where?” Kili frowns, eyeing the toboggan with suspicion.

“It was snowing all night last night, must be close to a foot out there by now. You’ll see what I mean. Now come on, where’s your jacket?!”

Like it or not, Fili’s wild enthusiasm seems to be catching and before he can think about it too much, Kili finds himself outside, being dragged towards a clearing in the forest on one of the slopes.

It happens half way down the slope on their very first go, doing close to 20 miles per hour, Fili at the front ‘so he can steer’ and Kili clinging on to him for dear life.

The emotion bubbles up from within him, bright, warm and wonderful, better than anything Kili ever felt before.

Joy. Delight. More than happiness, less than love, though close, so close to it.

Kili doesn’t know what to do with it, all this flood of merriment and utter glee, but suddenly the Reaper _understands_ , completely and utterly why it’s all _worth it_.

Human lives may be brief and tinged with sadness and death, but then they also have this, this… _indescribable bliss_ and it’s so simple but so profound and Kili never wants it to end.

He laughs and laughs and laughs, choking up on the icy air, squishing Fili’s ribs almost painfully all the way to the bottom, where some stone or a gnarled root throws them right out of the sledge and into fresh, fluffy piles of snow.

“Fili?!” he scrambles back to his feet as soon as he comes to a stop, because people are _fragile_ and now alongside with the wonderful echoes of joy, fear starts growing inside him as well.

He gets a hard hit straight to the back of his head for his troubles.

Fili is kneeling in the snow several feet away, looking pleased with himself as he prepares another snowball. The bastard is grinning.

“You –!“

Kili manages to dodge the next one, but not the one after, which hits him squarely in the shoulder.

For a moment a regular war break out, full of indignant squeaks, triumphant cries and above all, delighted laughter. Kili’s emotions are running amok once again, but he doesn’t even try to reign them in, instead plunging into it all head first.

And then he charges, through the hail of fluffy white missiles, right at his target until they crash into one another, sending Fili flying and back into the snow drift. Kili kisses him right on that low, pleased laughter, stealing hot breath for himself, pure instinct making him clash their tongues and search for Fili’s taste.

Fili doesn’t seem to mind, if the way he pushes up against the body on top of him is any indication, or the low moan trembling in the back of his throat, or the wet gloves in Kili’s hair. They roll around once, Fili on top now, blue eyes shining with something slightly different when he licks into Kili’s hot mouth, then they roll again until Kili is dizzy from it all and completely drunk on love pulsing through his whole soul.

He yelps and pulls off when a lump of snow slips behind his collar, Fili looking unbearably smug at Kili’s outrage, but also thoroughly kissed out, delightfully dishevelled and utterly alive.

Kili lets himself drink in the sight of him like that for two heartbeats, meticulously catalogues the man he loves –

\- Before reaching to scoop some snow of his own.

 

\---

 

Kili can’t really tell when exactly he stops knowing how long the people around them have left.

It’s like he’s distracted. Distracted by the brightness in his life that is Fili, until one day he realises that the heavy burden of _knowing_ is gone.

His empathy is slowly disappearing too. He can still tell generally how people feel, but nowadays it tends to slip his mind, so he has to actually focus if he wants to know.

Most days he doesn’t.

He finds more of that pure joy he so loved in his new job, at a local kindergarten in the nearest town – children apparently have it in abundance and he relishes the chance to be surrounded by so much happiness and life on a daily basis. Kids love his gleeful enthusiasm too - within a few short weeks the Reaper turns from their minder to something of a pack leader.

It’s been a year since Fili was meant to die.

It’s been a year since Kili was born.

 

\---


	29. Kiss Twenty Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: NC-17
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Damnitfili / Girlmarvel :)
> 
> I'm calling this 'A Brief History Of Love Across The Aeons'.

The angel sits on the roof where he has plenty of space and an excellent vantage point.

He’s wearing a simple gray t-shirt and a pair of jeans so worn that there are threadbare patches over his knees which have nothing to do with fashion.

It’s a cool evening, now that the warm rays of sun are fast disappearing but he doesn’t mind – he tucks his white, fluffy wings around himself like a blanket against the harsh gusts of wind every now and then.

The other creature lands on top of the firewood shed, shakily and having to balance with some desperate flapping.

The angel narrows his eyes, stopping himself flying over to steady his brother. Just.

“How bad is it?” he asks instead.

“A couple of stitches, a sprinkling of dark magic. I’ve had much worse –“ he watches the muscles in angel’s jaw tense and he knows he’s made a mistake bringing up unwanted memories. “I’ll be right as rain in a week or two.”

Screams, blood, so much blood he kept sliding in it, metal thongs for pulling out bullets and overwhelming darkness, which is always harder to keep at bay when he’s injured.

“I’m sorry,” says the angel, eyes lost somewhere on the line of the horizon.

Long gash along his back from where a juggernaut finally got him, uneven edges of a wound along his left leg where the hell hounds found him after.

They heal faster now.

Blue eyes finally meet brown.

“Kili,” the angel whispers like a prayer.

“Fee,” the demon returns.

 

\---

 

Their hands scramble, peeling cloth away from skin, eyes chasing memories and lips whispering promises, spells and pleas.

For a while the need for contact overrules everything else.

“It’s been so long. Aeons.”

“Missed this. Missed you. God, I need you –“

The pain slips in quietly, with the first hungry kisses, along fingers tracing muscle and through contact where bodies press tight automatically.

They taste copper straight away, swallow it, push for more –

“Ow,” Fili breathes, pulling away, his thumb wiping away blood from the corner of his mouth. “I don’t know how –“

“I don’t care! I need you, Fee…”

It’s odd – this overwhelming pleasure twined with overwhelming pain, but they have only been made into opposites; they haven’t been stripped of their ability to see or feel.

They whimper and gasp through it all, writhing on a messy bed half in desperation, half in something else.

Oil slicks them like it always has, but it doesn’t numb them.

Fingers pause at Kili’s entrance, trembling. Kili’s hand slows down on Fili’s cock, soft now from the pain.

“I can’t,” the angel whispers, watching his brother’s lip bleed from where he bit it with sharp teeth and the tears in the corners of his eyes.

“Please! I can take it, I’ll be okay –“

“No. I won’t hurt you like that.” Fili scrambles back until his back hits the footboard. He looks mortified. “I nearly –“

“Fili.”

The wings unfurl behind him and he takes off in a flurry of feathers, naked and ashamed. The next moment he’s gone.

Kili doesn’t bother stopping the tears any more, eyes with vertical pupils taking in the smudges of blood on his skin and open wounds where Fili held him too long, his mind finally comprehending how much they have been warped compared to what they were meant to be, how cruelly their fate has treated them.

But they have only been made into opposites; they haven’t been stripped of their ability to see or feel.

He grabs Fili’s discarded t-shirt and buries his face in the soft cotton and the only smell of home he knows.

 

\---

 

It takes Kili four days to find his angel.

“Hey,” he whispers as gently as he knows how and carefully cups Fili’s face in his hand.

His brother flinches, but freezes when there is no pain.

“Gloves,” Kili whispers with a sad little smile and shivers when a warm hand closes over his own. He can feel it, just, through the supple, fine black leather.

He watches blue eyes slip closed and a golden head tilt a little and it’s like he knows redemption.

“It’s been millennia, Fili. We finally manage to find each other after all this time and you disappear on me within the first half hour. Some would say you’ve over-reacted,” he murmurs, but with kindness that defies the teasing words.

“I won’t hurt you. I can’t.”

“I won’t push you to hurt me again. I’m sorry.”

Fili takes a shaky breath and nods, some of his fractures closing up.

“But there is so much else we can give each other. So much time we lost. I want to be with you Fili, in any way I can. I meant it, when I said I needed you. It’s hard… staying _me_ on my own.”

Fili doesn’t respond, instead pulling Kili into a tight embrace, carefully avoiding exposed skin of his neck. “Always. You’ve got me, Kee. From now on, for as long as we have left.”

 

\---

 

Eventually they find a way; a hundred different ways in fact.

Gloves for starters, best quality money can buy. Leather feels almost like skin to them, when it caresses their bodies and it’s thick enough that there’s no pain at all. Latex is more tricky, allowing their fingertips more sensitivity, but the feeling is less natural and it leaves them with faint sense of discomfort.

They laugh the first time they try condoms – extra thick, Fili insisted, and ribbed, Kili demanded – because it feels so odd that they should need them, but it’s as close as they can get to having each other in that one sense they’ve been denied.

Clothed sex, cuddles through blankets, long sleeves, socks and an odd fondness for turtlenecks.

They learn about the power of words that brilliant first time when Fili gets Kili off without a single touch, simply by telling him what to do and watching him do it.

Finally vibrators, vibes, butt plugs and fleshlights. Remote controls which are a blessing. They pant, push, struggle, and get exactly what they want, if not entirely how they want it.

They haven’t forgiven or forgotten what’s been done to them, but they haven’t allowed it to get in their way either.

 

\---

 

It’s Kili’s birthday and Fili is up at the crack of dawn to try and bake him a cake, banishing his brother from the kitchen.

It’s his twentieth, since they met again. Kili finds it inappropriately delightful that they are now officially the same age, at least according to their current count. Neither can remember their actual age, and even the calendar requires meticulous finagling and some careful approximation to arrive at a celebration date.

He hisses when the kitchen door opens despite his strict instructions, spinning around on his heel, wings spreading into their full, impressive span to block the oven and countertops from view.

He doesn’t expect a sheet of cling film being pressed to his face, or the sweet, gentle press of warm lips against his own through the fine layer of plastic. It aches a little, but not much.

“Hi,” Kili looks smug, less than an inch away from his face, hands on either side, keeping the sheet between them stretched taut. “I’ve missed you, out there, all on my own,” he tells him, then leans in for another chaste kiss and this time he even resorts to a soft _mwah_ as he does it.

“I – You –“

“Me,” Kili agrees and tilts his head for another one, making Fili press back against him. “All alone,” he reminds him, the absolute shit.

“You’re not supposed to be in here!” Fili blurts out, outraged, because he’s not meant to be impressed.

“So you banish me again,” his brother sighs dramatically, and he’s always been very good at drama.

“Damn right I do! You wanted me to surprise you with the cake, remember? Now out!”

Kili throws him a pleased little look before retreating together with his cling film.

His pupils might be slits now, he may have huge, leathery wings, and his touch might burn Fili’s soul and flesh, but by some small mercy Kili has never stopped being himself.

 

\---

 

They fall apart, like that first time, because they’re not willing to hurt each other.

It’s a tricky balancing act between bitter despair and going on living and for a time they get it horribly wrong.

 

\---

 

Next time they meet and manage to cling to each other, the technology has moved on.

It’s awful that first time – Kili’s mind, normally chaotic but bright, a mind which Fili knows as well as his own, now ripped to shreds and fractured by time, loneliness and drugs.

He trips through the nanobytes, through shards of memories and emotions, through the things no angel has ever seen.

Through neuro-conductors and processors Kili takes Fili to hell. It feels insignificant compared to Kili’s own existence.

He stumbles back from the softly glowing screen of the interface and wonders if it’s possible to have his soul wounded.

It takes them several years, and a combined effort of both their iron wills to heal both of them enough to start over.

There is a home now, cosy and warm in a non-descript high-rise building. There is closeness they both need, which keeps them safe.

They talk, they work things out, they forgive each other and themselves.

Kili stays well and truly off the drugs since the day they come home again. He doesn’t need them when he has his brother’s presence and forgiveness. He spends more time staying quiet now, re-organising his mind back to how it was, painstakingly putting away jagged thoughts and dusting off important memories.

They tip-toe back to intimacy, eventually reach out to each other once more. No filthy interface cabin this time, sticky with emotions of others. Instead –

Home. Safety. Latest, finest tech with miniature, silicon pads. A quiet evening as they relax slowly into each other’s thoughts. Familiarity and pleasure when they slip into each other in a way that is more physical and intimate than anything else they have ever done, yet involves no contact at all.

The marvel of it all.

They are undeniably older now, emotionally more than physically. They swap fantasies with little shame, they magnify and enhance desire between them in ways that a human brain could not comprehend.

They get off, delighted and unconcerned if their bodies followed suite.

They give, they take and they find this one little way to be together again.

 

\---

 

He has a memory of pleasure. From the time Before.

Or is it one of laughter? Of love?

He can’t tell. But it’s bright and strong in his heart when the Darkness comes.

Bright and strong and inextinguishable.

 

\---

 

They’re both surprised when the kiss doesn’t hurt. It’s their first one (since they died), still in bed, swathed in bandages.

Neither flinches despite direct contact and they exchange a glance with more understanding than any neurolink could have ever offered them.

Then, slowly, the corners of their mouths quirk up.

“Kiss me.”

“I just did.”

“Again. And you can do better than that.”

“Needy.”

It takes some doing – careful shuffling to avoid all of their injuries, gentle tilt of their heads, a brush at first and a resultant shiver, which they share. Then a firmer press and slide, blissful warmth, softness and fingers caressing skin freely. They draw a pleased breath and then one moves to chase the tip of the tongue of the other, playful, demanding until they can plunge into the kiss properly, with a wet slide and a familiar taste and a moan spilling between them.

Love sparks pleasure, which in turn awakens desire, but they know when they’re being overly ambitious now.

Somewhere between a little nip of blunt teeth and a sunny smile kissed into the other’s mouth a nightmare of aeons becomes a hazy memory to ponder, perhaps, one rainy day when there’s nothing better to do.

 

\---


	30. Kiss Thirty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating: M
> 
> Written by Linane-art as a gift for Vennor / Im_a_huge_fan_of_coffee :) 
> 
> **This is a sequel to[Kiss 23](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8926912/chapters/29765622), so if you haven't read that, this won't make any sense!**
> 
> **There is a song that goes with this ficlet. You can find it[here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugQgIsKU-DY)**

_Here I'll stay_  
_Till I find my way_  
_When all is lost_  
_I need you the most_

_Where I am?_  
_I don't seem to know_  
_I lost my path_  
_I've lost my hope_

_Take me to the place where you go_  
_And stay beside me_  
_And make it stop_

_Sometimes you lose_  
_Sometimes you win_  
_Sometimes it's hard to see the end_  
_But it's okay_  
_You're not alone_  
_Cause you've got me_  
_We've got this song_

_All I see_  
_Is a part of me_  
_Just a pair of eyes_  
_I fail to recognise_

_Who am I?_  
_I don't seem to care_  
_I lost control_  
_I've lost it all_

_Take me to the place where you go_  
_And stay beside me_  
_And make it stop_

_Sometimes you lose_  
_Sometimes you win_  
_Sometimes it's hard to see the end_  
_But it's okay_  
_You're not alone_  
_Cause you've got me_  
_We've got this song_

 

\---

 

“Remember the meteorite shower? There were so many, like explosions, bright flashes and smudged stars. And we just… lay there on the bare Antarctic rock and stared. I remember, it felt like the entire sky belonged just to us. That was the first time you held my hand, not like _ever_ of course, but first time _like that_. And you didn’t say anything, but somehow I just knew. It was you with me back then; it was going to be you with me always.”

Soft, warm, brown eyes. Creased with laughter.

Fili wonders sometimes if it might be possible to love a dream. Because he loves, with all of himself, could probably learn to love even Kili’s shadow or the exact outline of Kili’s steps.

It’s all he has left, all he’s been reduced to, lost among the uncaring stars and unending dreams torturing him with their emptiness.

He closes his eyes, twin tears running down his temples.

“Feels odd to think that now we _are_ one of those tiny dots in the sky.”

INJECTING WAKE UP COCTAIL.

Needles piercing his arms and torso, pushing inside his organs, pumping nutrients and activators inside him, his fingertips twitching against the pain.

“Fili? Oh Fili, you always _were_ a light sleeper. Gandalf, put him back under.”

 _No_ , Fili thinks stubbornly. _Stay._

TEMPORARY ANAESTHESIA INITIATED AS PER THE SLOW AWAKENING PROTOCOLS.

“Shhhh… I won’t have it hurt, not when it doesn’t have to. Just a little bit longer Fili, just… hang in there. I’ll be right here with you.”

The gas takes only a moment to fill the space inside the plexi-glass, stripping away everything and leaving him all alone once more.

He tries to scream, tries to cling to the pain, so the hazel-coloured kindness won’t be taken away, but his body simply doesn’t have the strength.

_Stay._

_Don’t leave me._

_Please._

  
\---

 

The nights in the Blue Mountains can be merciless.

Fili is no stranger to loneliness; he walks in tight circles, trapped by the transparent dome of their 5x5 meter pod, fingers skimming over the exact height where Kili keeps bumping his head, eyes tracing the bare Antarctic landscape, dotted sparingly in places with warm glow of other pods. He sits heavily on top of the mattress set out in the middle, among rumpled sheets and hangs his head, giving in to the sleeplessness which will pick him apart.

Even for a jet-freight, it’s a 3 day cruise to Las Estrellas and back, including a minimum of a 12 hour break after delivery to be able to pilot it back. Sometimes they manage to swap their shifts so they’re away at the same time, occasionally even racing each other in the same direction, but more often than not they simply resign themselves to 2 nights apart, before several spent together.

“You know, whenever you look up, you see the same stars as me,” Kili points out one cold evening, when they’re huddled together under the covers for warmth and closeness. “They always make me think of you, sharing one sky.”

It keeps him sane during the weeks and months and years of ‘the best they could hope for’ life.

Except of course, waking up at minimum once every 25 years on a ship with quantum engines and out of synch once more, their stars are no longer aligned.

 

\---

 

He’s brought back to life with a kiss.

It’s light, merely a press of warm lips against his own, chaste, with the faintest scratch of stubble.

Such a gentle, little thing and yet to Fili it’s the greatest kindness anyone has ever shown him, when it gives him back his consciousness and with it, control.

Soft, warm, brown eyes. Brimming with longing.

“Kee…” he croaks, the need to fix this flaring like fire inside his veins, stronger than the desolation in his soul, stronger than anything. In that moment Fili exists purely to save his brother.

He lifts a hand and sinks it into the riot of chocolate-coloured hair, pulls Kili closer, and shivers when his lips meet the only ones he ever wants to kiss. They hesitate for a second, allow a soft brush of skin against skin, before centuries of loneliness are banished with another kiss, slower, deeper, a gentle slide of a wet tongue against tongue.

_A true love’s kiss._

“Fili, I –“

Kili chokes on his next words and Fili simply holds him as close as he can, stunned, desperate and unashamed of his own tears flowing freely, and the only thing he knows is –

“I love you,” he murmurs low and aching. “Are you real?”

The hoarse laughter sounds a bit hysterical. “Yeah. Yeah, I am, Fee. And God, I love you too. I’ve missed you _so much_.”

More kisses to the corner of his mouth, and tears, and smiles, and all of Kili’s places pressed flush to all the right places of his own – arms, legs, flat stomach, sharp hips, heartbeat and breaths. Curled up on top of him, next to him, under his skin almost, as close as Kili can be, in a jigsaw they worked out a long time ago.

It’s the most fragile Fili has ever felt: suspended between unquenchable hope and devastating fear that it will all be taken away.

“I dreamt about this… so many times,” he murmurs, taking a shaky breath.

“Oh yeah, the tell! Oin did say you’d need it. Give me your hand,” Kili demands.

Fili does, watches him produce a syringe needle, locks eyes with him, mesmerized, as the tip pricks the pad of his index finger, causing a bright spark of a very real pain.

 _It’s over. I have been saved_.

He stares at the little bead of blood, momentarily stunned by the flood of gratitude and relief, while Kili uses the same needle to prick himself, then lines their hands up exactly, letting the red mix across their skin.

“There. A blood pact!” Kili declares, grinning. “Now you have to believe me, and I promise you that I’m real! Welcome home, Fee.”

“You’re too old for blood pacts,” Fili tells him, but he’s smiling too, eyes sliding closed once more, now that his curse has been lifted. “Thank you,” he breathes, giving in to what his heart wants and pulling Kili into another crushing hug. “For waking me up.”

“Well, there was going to be a fight, if anyone else tried it before me,” Kili chuckles, perfectly happy to have his breath squeezed out of his lungs. “Luckily I had the first dibs, since I was the one to land us down. It was always going to be me, Fee.”

Somewhere, in the back of Fili’s mind a thought appears: they must have arrived at their destination. It should be important, it should _matter_ , he thinks, except it doesn’t, not now, when he has all he ever wanted inside his arms.

“Stay,” he whispers instead.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

 

\---

 

“I wish you were there with me, when I first saw this world. I could try and describe it, but – I’m not even sure I’d have the right words. There are so many trees here, like whole colonies of them…”

“Forests. They used to call ‘em ‘forests’,” Fili supplies helpfully and nuzzles his nose closer against Kili’s neck, chasing his scent through the annoying tinge of antibacterial wash.

“See? Told you!”

“Kili, you’ll be there when _I_ first see it. And my every moment after. I promise I won’t even peek until you’re ready to show me.”

“Deal.”

 

\---

 

“So you landed us down?” Fili’s eyes scan the atmospheric readings, but without any real interest – it will take more than the primaries to conclusively evaluate the composition.

“I did,” Kili nods, poking aimlessly at the soil samples. “Nice and gentle. Sweet canyon, cosy and sheltered.”

Fili wriggles his toes sticking out of the blanket he’s wrapped in. Unlike Kili, he hasn’t bothered with a suit, content instead with soft fabric against his skin. Having been woken up in the slow mode, he’s still sleepy and Kili told him sternly to take it easy for a few days. So Fili is taking his time, _lounging_.

“Surely, the protocol would dictate that the _first_ pilot lands the Quest,” he frowns, puzzled.

“I asked. Gandalf said something about letting you have a lie-in after you kept waking up.”

Brown eyes catch blue and Fili shifts his leg to reveal one hairy calf dangling over the seat’s arm-rest in a bid to distract Kili from the question he hasn’t asked yet.

“I swear this AI does whatever he wants,” Fili says instead, rolling his eyes. “And then you disregarded him in turn, waking me up first, instead of Thorin.”

“Tell me you would have done differently.”

“No, between me and Thorin, I’d definitely pick me too.”

Kili laughs and Fili delights in the carefree brilliance of it. He will never know how he survived centuries without the sound of it.

“Besides, I’m the love of your life,” Kili murmurs, low and meaningful, but his eyes betray him with a playful glimmer. “I’m pretty sure I’m contractually obliged to pine for you.”

“And I’m the love of yours. I’m hardly going to blame you for not being able to restrain yourself.”

Kili cracks first, instantly in Fili’s personal space and kissing him right on that bubbling laughter once more.

He likes this kiss, carefully files it away for safekeeping, along with all the other ones.

“Gandalf, how many trees have you counted so far?” Brown eyes lock with blue again, silently challenging when Kili’s fingers slip into Fili’s hair and scratch lightly against his scalp.

Fili stifles a moan, but only just, challenging him right back instead, tracing the line of the suit’s zip.

763448 WITH A TRUNK DIAMETER INDICATING THE AGE OF 10 YEARS OR MORE AND COUNTING.

“He’d be faster analysing the air, if you’d let him drop it,” Fili points out, amused. “You know, so we could actually think about going outside?”

Kili freezes where he’s nibbling at his beard, blanket already pushed off one of Fili’s shoulders.”Thorin will have kittens when he learns we’ve let ourselves out.”

“Only if he catches us.”

For a moment the prospect of making out balances evenly with the prospect of getting off the ship and claiming the first few steps in this new world, but they never _could_ resist their curiosity -

“Cancel the tree-counting query, focus on the atmospheric readings.”

ATMOSPHERIC ANALYSIS COMPLETE. COMPOSITION: NITROGEN: 77% -

“Is it breathable for us?” Fili interrupts the AI, impatient in the face of a lapful of a wildly excited Kili.

WITH SOME DIFFICULTY.

“Huh?!” Fili blinks. “What are the chances…?! Actually, don’t answer that. Describe the difficulties and possible symptoms instead.” He frowns. Theoretically the ship’s filters are designed to run indefinitely, but in reality they have been working for over 350 years now and whatever comes out of them is already thin and stuffy.

THE ATMOSPHERE OF THIS PLANET IS 11.3% CLEANER THAN THAT OF EARTH’S. IT WILL TAKE AN ESTIMATED 2 YEARS 3 MONTHS AND 21 DAYS BEFORE YOUR LUNGS EXPAND SUFFICIENTLY TO GROW ACCLIMATISED. SYMPTOMS MAY INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO: HYPERVENTILATION, DIZZINESS, INCREASED ALERTNES, ANXIETY –

“Wait, wait, wait, wait! So you’re saying that it’s actually better for us than at home?” They both freeze, waiting for the response.

AFFIRMATIVE.

The scramble for the outside is mad, their shoulders bumping into each other in the doorways, and Fili nearly trips over his blanket, twice. It never occurs to them that one should be ahead of the other – they’ll do this together, like everything else. It takes a moment for them to confirm and re-confirm all their various authorisation codes to open the rear gate, but then they move in synch, hands clasped tight, eyes squinting against the bright light.

They take the step, their hearts wild and pounding.

The world outside stuns them.

Everything is just… _more_.

The colours are brighter, even in their bleak, rocky surroundings, silence interrupted only by the wind is incomprehensible, and it feels like there’s just more… _air_ in the air, making them choke and cough and double over from the sudden influx of oxygen.

They only make it a short distance over the rocky ground, before they have to sit down heavily, but it’s enough. It won’t be long until the steps of others and angry yelling will follow them, but for a few long minutes they claim the entire planet for themselves – legs dangling off the edge of a cliff, Fili barefoot, still tangled in his blanket, Kili in his suit but with the zip somewhat slipped open, holding hands, as they try to take in this new, alien world.

It’s in that moment that they realise that whatever other problems they encounter, to have been able to give each other _this_ , their journey was worth it.

 

\---

 

They considered, so many times back home, what Erebor might be like.

They envisaged a lifeless, dusty terrain, perhaps some sources of water deep underground that might be tapped into, and a colony of pods hidden in some cave somewhere.

They memorised countless emergency scenarios, took courses in biology, geology, agriculture, chemistry, engineering, spent hours and hours practicing on each other: how to patch up a torn suit in space or toxic atmospheric conditions, how to control panic in the face of diminishing resources, how to recognise the early symptoms of an oncoming mental breakdown (though that last one was as obvious to them as if they were leaving each other memos).

They trained and trained and trained, trying to prepare for every eventuality, juggling various courses with work, often feeling too tired for anything more than a few lazy kisses and a few quiet words.

And now that they’re here the planet is lush like some dreamt-up paradise.

So they’re making love.

AIR FILTERS AT 79%.

“Gandalf, get out of our room and go bother someone else,” Fili growls, canting his hips _just so_ and watching, enraptured, as Kili’s face twists in pleasure, his teeth gnawing on his bottom lip.

I HAVE NO PHYSICAL PRESENCE WHICH COULD BE RE-LOCATED. IF FURTHER ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, PLEASE REPEAT YOUR COMMAND.

“You like that, baby? Right there? Is that good?”

NO PREFERENCES PROGRAMMED. WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACCESS THE MAIN MENU?

“Hnnn… Yes. Yes, that’s it, _so good_ , Fili. Uhn –“

MAIN MENU. PLEASE SELECT FROM THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS –“

“AI: terminate,” Fili huffs distractedly - _what the hell was the command again?!_ \- pushes up a little with his feet - “You want it, Kee? C’mon, move, baby. I know you like to feel it.”

PLEASE REPEAT YOUR COMMAND.

“Get out!!” Kili shouts, before dissolving into giggles and then, almost immediately, desperate pants from the way the movement makes him feel.

PLEASE REPEAT –

“OUT!!”

 

\---

 

They spend their first full year living on the ship, inside a cave, tapping to a deep underground water supply.

Theirs is the one and only chance and it doesn’t make sense to risk it, until all seasons planet-wise are thoroughly documented, climate, terrain and potential dangers are analysed, distribution of resources mapped out and everybody is thoroughly fed up with staying put.

It’s a year filled with hard work and sacrifices – there’s no denying it. With so many crew-members lost, the strain on remaining colonists is far greater than anybody could have ever envisaged: they fall back even on their more obscure knowledge, even in the areas that aren’t actually their field of expertise.

They all have two or even three separate roles now, to try and compensate for the skillsets they have lost.

That’s how Kili finds himself spending some time with their mother, overseeing the little seeds they brought with them germinate, and then thrive in this new, wonderfully rich air. He puts in many hours and sleepless nights picking apart the chemistry when their beans refuse to co-operate; he runs to Fili when their first potato bulb emerges from the rocks and dirt they collected and passed to Gandalf to modify to resemble real soil.

Fili often finds him in the greenhouse module, hair pulled into a haphazard pony tail, head pillowed on his arms, as he glares some of the more difficult seedlings into growing right.

Fili himself is training as a second medic and psychologist, since Oin lost most of his med-corp contingent during their journey. It helps, having had to deal with some of his own issues and understanding how sometimes just an honest conversation is enough to ground a person. He pulls quite a few all-nighters of his own, memorising various symptoms, drug lists, treatments, possible side effects, techniques and psychology theories.

It’s exhausting, but also incredibly rewarding – neither Fili nor Kili ever thought they’d take this path, working so hard to achieve more than they ever dreamt of.

Then there’s another six months of living in pods, spread out and interconnected on the cave floor, still hidden deep inside the mountain. Thankfully by then Thorin drops the order to wear suits.

There are still numerous challenges to overcome, and they think they’ll spend the rest of their lives learning new skills and fighting for survival, but it feels good to be able to sneak out every now and then to the very edge of their cave and plomp down with their legs dangling over the precipice like that very first day. Their eyes drink in the natural light of their new sun, map out the ragged edges of the landscape before them and slide closed, when their shoulder finds purchase against each other.

It’s undoubtedly _their_ spot, and sometimes, feeling whimsical, they wonder if the future generations might recognise it as place of some significance, or if it will just be forgotten, secondary to the site of the first landing nearby.

Finally, a year and a half after their arrival, Thorin allows the colony to move to a more strategically advantageous location. It takes another few weeks for Gandalf to chew through xenobytes of data and come up with the perfect spot: nestled within a lush valley in a temperate zone, teaming with local wildlife, on top of rich mineral deposits and with easy access to water from the stream running along its floor.

A place where a new civilisation might thrive, since the colony celebrates its first birth in the same year.

The first place where Fili and Kili feel truly free.

 

\---

 

“Mnnnn.”

“Hey, sleepyhead.”

“Sleeping’s good for you. Resets your synapses. Why are you even awake?”

“Because strawberries want early watering, before sun scorches them.”

“I have my needs too, you know. Move.”

He snuggles up against Kili’s shoulder, feeling content when a familiar arm wraps easily around his shoulders.

“Are you saying you’ll wilt too, if I don’t water you regularly?”

“Don’t know about watering, but I’ll definitely wither without your love.”

“Fat chance of that happening. You’re far too hot.”

“You just want me for my body.”

“And your sunny morning personality.”

Fili scoffs, pacified by the fingers brushing stray strands of hair away from his face.

He remembers a time when he would have given anything, _anything at all_ to wake up like this, safe and loved and free to open his eyes as he pleases. He’s no longer a prisoner of his own dreams, stronger now, and closer, truer to his Kili than ever before.

“How’s the baby?” Kili wants to know, his lips brushing against Fili’s forehead, simply because he knows that the little contact will bring his brother pleasure.

“Teething. It’s hell. I should have signed up to be a miner instead.”

“Now, now. Can’t be _that_ bad. Aren’t children meant to be our greatest joy and so on?”

“I’ve set up a rota for the parents and left them with sleeping pills, extra strong.”

“God, I love you being all competent.”

“Expression, Kili. Expression’s important. Give in, let your feelings be known. Kiss me.”

And Kili does, broad smiles and enthusiasm dispersing last vestiges of sleepiness.

 

\---

 

They miss flying something fierce.

It’s in their second year that Fili’s and Kili’s newfound chemical knowledge, combined with Gandalf’s vast database finally result in a formula for fuel that won’t kill their space hopper’s engines.

Or more accurately, it _shouldn’t_ kill the engines. Gandalf gives it 82.4% success rate. It’s the best they can hope for, considering what they’ve got available.

The only problem: it requires sea water, which means sacrificing some of their existing, precious fuel to perhaps brew some new one.

It’s a huge gamble and it takes them weeks of relentless nagging before Thorin finally caves in.

If their first flight in years is perhaps a bit more exuberant than it strictly speaking should be – crazy pirouettes around each other in the sky free of traffic control, wild laughter over the radio and something of a race across the landscape never seen by human eye before – they will hear all about it only upon their return.

“Gandalf? You know how the air here is better for us than on Earth?” Fili asks over the comms, eyes squinting against the sun reflected in the vastness of blue spread before them. “Purely theoretically, would the sea here be clean enough to swim in it, per chance?”

“And is there anything living in it, that might be dangerous to us?” Kili adds seamlessly, his mind easily picking up the thread of Fili’s thoughts.

ANALYSING. CHEMICAL COMPOSITION SUITABLE FOR SHORT-TERM EXPOSURE, THOUGH DETRIMENTAL IF INGESTED IN LARGE QUANTITIES.

“No drinking, got it,” Fili agrees.

THERE ARE SEVERAL SPECIES DISPLAYING PREDATORY CHARACTERISTICS, BUT INSUFFICIENT DATA AVAILABLE TO DETERMINE IF THEY MIGHT ATTACK HUMANS. CLOSEST INDIVIDUAL: 4.5 MILES TO THE NORTH-EAST.

They land on the beach of course, and decide that in the interest of science, they should provide their AI with some more data, try it out, so to speak.

It’s the first time they bathe in the sea, in _anything_ really, considering the water shortages and pollution in the world they grew up in. They waddle, splash, jump the waves and get sand in some very uncomfortable places when they sprawl out on the shore to dry, while the pumps siphon the water they need.

Thorin is of course _seething_ once they return, threatens to ban them from flying ever again, but all in all it’s worth every scowl and glare.

Six months and close to 70kg of various assorted plants collected by hand later, and their fuel is all distilled. They don’t know it yet, but they will come to know that quiet, unassuming day as their own, personal independence day.

The fuel is a hit, even increases engine’s performance somewhat, after some minor modifications.

It makes them free to brew even more.

It gives them their wings back.

 

\---

 

“Do you ever regret it?” Fili asks one night, his back pressed against bare rock, eyes trained on the sky. “All that time we were forced apart, the near-misses, the risks we’re still running. Leaving home… everyone we knew is long dead now, except those few people we took with us. We could, in fact, be the last people alive in the universe.”

“I don’t like thinking about it,” Kili admits finally, his hand inside Fili’s own squeezing gently. “And if we are, then I’m glad you’re here with me.”

“But do you regret it?”

A moment of silence. Eventually - “That’s just how it goes, isn’t it?” He shrugs. “Opportunities are always paid for with risks and emotional turmoil. But if we hadn’t taken that first step towards the horizon once upon a time, we wouldn’t be human today. And if us being here today isn’t a proof that dwarvans are perfectly human, then I don’t know what is.” Kili rolls over then, giving up on watching the meteorite shower, to watch Fili’s face instead. “I wish I could magically take away all the anguish you felt, the loneliness, and the time we lost on Earth. I regret those. But it made us stronger, _strong enough_ to survive, and for that I’m grateful.”

They are momentarily distracted, when a particularly bright flash cuts the sky above them. These are brand new stars they watch nowadays, and they’re only a fraction done with naming the constellations.

“I don’t know if I should admire you for being able to say this, or if I should feel guilty that I allowed you to grow up enough to see it this way,” Fili whispers, his eyes soft and sad.

“You’re my older brother, Fee. Normally you’d just make fun of me.”

He wraps one arm around Kili’s trim waist and pulls him flush, ignoring the rocks poking him in the ribs. “Normally you give me something to work with,” he mutters, before kissing Kili so he won’t be able to come up with some clever response.

 

\---

 

They discover gliding in those early days, when they still have to ration their fuel, as one exhilarating way to make it last longer.

They only dare to glide over the mountains, and only one way, with their tanks empty, killing the engines and using the natural winds rising along the peaks to carry them for over 150 km. It’s something of a running contest between them to see who can keep their engines off for longer, relying on their skill alone to ride the wind as far as possible.

Except one day one of their fuel batches becomes contaminated, rendering it useless and forcing them to take only one space hopper to re-supply.

Not that this will stop Kili from coming along.

He simply climbs into the cockpit after Fili and then makes himself comfortable in his lap.

“You can’t be serious!” Fili protests.

“You’re right, this is my laughing face,” Kili agrees, trying to work out how to strap in Fili’s safety harness with minimal impact to his own comfort.

“We are _not_ flying like this!”

“Why not? The hopper has no problems taking the weight of a full tank, I’m sure one calorie-conscious dwarvan won’t make any difference.”

“For starters I can’t see!” Fili blows on a dark strand already caught in his beard to illustrate his point.

Helpfully, Kili pulls his hair into a pony tail, then crosses his arms on his chest, eyebrow raised.

“I can’t reach the controls.”

It takes some finagling with the seat settings, but eventually it’s doable.

“How are we going to strap you in, hm?!”

“We won’t, it’ll be fine.”

“But what if we have to eject?!”

“You will hold onto me very, very tightly and you won’t let me go, come hell or high water.”

“The ‘chute –“

“We won’t have to eject, we never have, in the whole history of both our flying careers!”

“Today will be the day, then…”

“Fili!”

“You’re heavy.”

“Now that’s just hurtful.”

“I can’t feel my toes already.”

Kili narrows his eyes. “If you think you’re leaving me behind, while you go off to frolic in the ocean, then you have another thing coming! And if you’re so concerned about health and safety, then why don’t I go and fill her up, and you can stay behind and watch my fumes.”

Fili bites his lip, before rolling his eyes and finally giving in. “Fine!” he snaps. “Take a deep breath.”

“What? Why?!”

“Presumably, they haven’t designed these with only the hot and slim people in mind. There must be a way of adjusting the harness to strap us both in.”

It’s a tight fit and not a very comfortable ride, but if Fili is absolutely honest with himself, there’s something romantic in the way Kili curls up in his arms as Fili takes them along a course he knows by heart. In the end his brother is sitting facing backwards, pressed flush against Fili’s chest and with legs on either side of his hips.

Fili can think of worse positions they’ve been in.

“Ready?” he murmurs, having climbed to an optimal height and already fighting against the wind which is trying to wrestle control from him.

“Do it,” Kili whispers right in his ear, causing a delicious shiver down his spine and several rather belated questions regarding Fili’s self-control and focus.

He flicks the switch and suddenly they’re suspended, sailing gently, quietly on the currents. It never fails to take their breath away, no matter how many times they do it – this feeling of weightlessness among the grandeur of the snow-covered peaks and deep, rugged valleys.

It’s an instinct to press one hand between Kili’s shoulder blades, to keep him safe and close, using his other one to nudge them into a very broad, sweeping curve along the ridge lift.

He gets a small rumble of approval for his troubles, feels Kili’s whole body relax on top of his own, Kili’s arms coming up to wrap themselves around Fili’s shoulders, his chin propped up on one of them.

“If I knew it would feel like this I would have made you fly me places a long time ago,” his brother murmurs, something like wonder, adoration and love in his voice.

“Not a chance,” Fili scoffs, even as his mind acknowledges the sudden influx of easy happiness, as he closes his eyes and allows himself to just _feel_ the way the hopper behaves, applying tiny adjustments with nothing more than brushes of his fingers.

They have never been anything but honest about each other’s piloting skills, but it still feels humbling that Kili would trust him, unconditionally, with his life; that he should leave Fili to do whatever he wants, some 25,000 feet above ground, and just enjoy the ride.

They dance like that for a while, skimming skilfully over thermals and various lifts, occasionally tilting to harness some new, unexpected airstream, their bodies tucked close, until their faces move towards each other, like sunflowers seeking the sun. Forehead to forehead, breathing the same air for a moment, before toying with the beginnings of a kiss, not quite fully committed, since they don’t want to actually fall out of the sky.

“Fili…” a whisper.

“I’ve got this,” and he really does, poised in his balance between watching the terrain, feeling the air currents and the low pulse of his love.

“No, I mean – Look!”

Fili blinks, scans their surroundings in alarm, but can’t see anything out of the ordinary. “Wha –“

“There! Right there! That _has_ to be man-made! There’s no way there are two of that – what is that? A statue?! –“

Kili is pointing now and Fili realises that no matter how much he tries to twist around, he will never be able to peer that far behind himself in his harness –

“- A giant, carved thing, _things_ \- on either side of that unnaturally flat rock face! I think that could be a gate! Gandalf! Wake up, old man! Activate! Wakey wakey!”

\- Which also explains why they never spotted whatever it is that Kili thinks he’s seeing before. They would have flown overhead too fast with their engines on, during their return journey, and just couldn’t look behind them while gliding.

“Two o’clock!” Kili is practically vibrating. “Record image! Keep recording!”

IMAGE CAPTURE ACTIVATED

“Eight! Eight o’clock,” Fili corrects. “Remember, you’re sitting the wrong way round!”

“Yes, eight! Project to screen! Actually, never mind, just get the coordinates!!”

Fili squints at the little image, which the AI faithfully projects onto his corner screen, thinks he can perhaps see _something_ that might be a silhouette, blurry and rapidly disappearing.

APPROXIMATE COORDINATES RECORDED. RANGE: 5 KM.

IMAGE RENDERING ACTIVATED. ANALYSING…

CONFIRMED.

STRUCTURES DO NOT APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN SHAPED NATURALLY, SUGGESTING A NATIVE, SENTIENT POPULATION. STATEMENT PROBABILITY: 63%.

Wide brown eyes meet blue. “We _have to_ go back, Fee!”

“Agreed, but remember how we had to take one hopper because half our fuel got contaminated?”

“ARRRRGGGH!!”

“Quite,” Fili chuckles, before leaning in to kiss the furious scowl on his brother’s face and starting the engines once more.

After all, the sooner they get their water, the sooner they will be able to start brewing more fuel.

 

\---

 


	31. Appendix

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Appendix describing each chapter

Kiss One: Heirs of Durin  
Written by DragonsQuill  
Gift for Vicky  
Rating: M  
Universe: [Heirs of Durin](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2786333) by DragonsQuill

Kiss Two: Fairies  
Written by Linane  
Gift for SaucyWench  
Rating: T  
Universe: [Little Gifts](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3258563/) by Linane

Kiss Three: Post Battle  
Written by Linane  
Gift for Damnitfili  
Universe: Stand Alone

Kiss Four: Space Dwarves  
Written by DragonsQuill  
Gift for aliceindurinland  
Universe: [Beyond These Stars](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5629828/) by DragonsQuill

Kiss Five: Geology AU  
Written by Linane  
Gift for Brave-And-Fierce-Dwarf  
Universe: Stand Alone

Kiss Six: Superpowers  
Written by Linane  
Gift for Lakritzwolf  
Universe: Superpowers AU

Kiss Seven: Baking Babies  
Written by Linane  
Gift for Wyvernchick  
Universe: Stand Alone

Kiss Eight: Snow Queen Twisted Fairytale  
Written by Linane  
Gift for My-T-Rex-Has-Fleas  
Universe: Stand Alone

Kiss Nine: Lune Verse  
Written by DragonsQuill  
Gift for Islandkate  
Universe: [The Gulf of Lune ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6714190) by DragonsQuill

Kiss Ten: Mistletoe  
Written by Linane  
Gift for taupefox59  
Universe: [Sound of Silence](https://archiveofourown.org/series/544012) by Linane

Kiss Eleven: World War II AU  
Written by Linane  
Gift for Withywindlesdaughter  
Universe: [Between the Boards ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4784042/chapters/10945127) by Linane

Kiss Twelve: Sleepy Mornings  
Written by: Linane  
Gift forL ladygarnett7  
Universe: Stand Alone

Kiss Thirteen: Modern Beach AU  
Written by DragonsQuill  
Gift for drakkhammer  
Universe: [The Gulf of Lune ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6714190) by DragonsQuill

Kiss Fourteen: Kingdoms  
Written by Linane  
Gift for Nelioe  
Universe: Stand Alone

Kiss Fifteen: Modern AU, One Ring  
Written by Linane  
Gift for archer-and-lion-prince  
Universe: Flight Attendant AU by Linane

Kiss Sixteen: Everybody Lives  
Written by Linane  
Gift for calicoskatts  
Universe: Stand Alone

Kiss Seventeen: Train  
Written by DragonsQuill  
Gift for Linane  
Universe: Train Boys

Kiss Eighteen: Train II  
Written by Linane  
Gift for DragonsQuill  
Universe: Train Boys

Kiss Nineteen:Practice  
Written by DragonsQuill  
Gift for TigrisIlium  
Universe: Building Blocks

Kiss Twenty: Puppy Love  
Written by DragonsQuill  
Gift for Ceallaig  
Universe: Stand Alone

Kiss Twenty-one: Snow  
Written by DragonsQuill  
Gift for Thorny Hedge  
Universe: [Your Heart Pounding ](http://archiveofourown.org/series/218051) by DragonsQuill and Linane

Kiss Twenty-two: A Borrowed Heart  
Written by Linane  
Gift for msilverstar  
Universe: [Spellbound](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6631531) by Linane

Kiss Twenty-three: I Want You To Know  
Written by Linane  
Gift for Gosia Mahoney  
Universe: Stand Alone

Kiss Twenty-four: Civil War  
Written by Linane  
Gift for Shinigami714  
Universe: Stand Alone

Kiss Twenty-five: First Christmas  
Written by Linane  
Gift for Chelidona  
Universe: [Sound of Silence](https://archiveofourown.org/series/544012) by Linane

Kiss Twnety-six: Bonfire Christmas  
Written by DragonsQuill  
Gift for Linane  
Universe: Train Boys!

Kiss Twenty-seven: Post-apocalypse AU  
Written by Linane  
Gift for MyLittleDragonHoard  
Universe: Stand Alone

Kiss Twenty-eight: Rebirth  
Written by Linane  
Gift for Shadowcat  
Universe: [Papercuts](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9577520) by Linane

Kiss Twenty-nine: Touch  
Written by Linane  
Gift for Damnitfili  
Universe: [Children of Stone](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9664577) by Linane

Kiss Thirty: You Are Not Alone  
Written by Linane  
Gift for Vennor  
Universe: Stand Alone (same as Kiss 23)


End file.
